Arecaceae
Rhapis

Rhapis gracilis Burret

First published in Notizbl. Bot. Gart. Berlin-Dahlem 10: 883 (1930)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is SE. China to Hainan. It is a shrub and grows primarily in the subtropical biome.

Descriptions

General Description
Stem height not recorded, with sheaths 6–8 mm diam. without sheaths 3–5mm. Leaf sheath with very fine, wavy fibers with a square mesh, ligule sometimes remaining intact at maturity; petiole to 1.8 mm wide, margin usually smooth sometimes bearing minute brown papillae; blade small, with V-shaped outline, without a palman, segments 2–4, folds 11–15, longest to 180 mm, apices oblique with secondary splitting, primary splits to within 3–15 mm of the blade base, both surfaces similar in colour, green with white tinge, transverse veinlets very conspicuous. Inflorescence, the male and female similar in general appearance with few rachillae, branching to 2 orders; prophyll and 2 rachis bracts similar in appearance, tubular, overlapping the base of the next bract, medium thickness, reddish brown, inner surface shiny, outer dull, lacking tomentum; rachis overall length to 200 mm, narrow, to 2 mm diam., few rachillae, occasionally with sparse tomentum where the rachis is adnate to the peduncle, medium brown. Flowers, 2–3 mm apart. Male flowers obovoid, to 4.3 × 2.2 mm; calyx to 2 mm, lobes acute to 1.1 mm with regular margin; corolla with a receptacular-stalk to 1 mm; filaments, shorter row to 1.2 mm, longer to 1.6 mm, to 0.3 mm diam. Female flowers only immature seen, to 3.1 × 2.1 mm; calyx to 2.6mm, margin regular, lobes acute to 1.1 mm; corolla with a receptacular-stalk to 0.2 mm. Fruit to 8 mm diam., borne on a receptacular-stalk to 2.5 mm; epicarp dull, papillose.
Biology
Habitat. 160 m at the foot of limestone hills.
Distribution
South China, Guangdong; Laos.
[PW]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: low confidence
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

    • Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
    • Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0