刺葵 ci kui

Phoenix pusilla Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 2: 614. 1790, not Gaertner (1788); P. hanceana Naudin; P. hanceana var. formosana Beccari; P. hanceana var. philippinensis Beccari; P. humilis Royle ex Beccari (1890), not (Linnaeus) Cavanilles (1793); P. humilis var. hanceana (Naudin) Beccari; P. humilis var. loureiroi (Kunth) Beccari; P. humilis var. pedunculata (Griffith) Beccari; P. humilis var. robusta Beccari; P. loureiroi var. humilis S. Barrow; P. loureiroi var. pedunculata (Griffith) Govaerts; P. ouseleyana Griffith; P. pedunculata Griffith; P. pygmaea Raeuschel; P. robusta (Beccari) J. D. Hooker.

Stems solitary or clustered, 1-6 m tall, 20-40 cm in diam., sometimes short and subterranean, rough with persistent, diamond-shaped leaf bases. Leaves to 2 m; sheath and petiole to 40 cm; rachis 1-2 m; acanthophylls ca. 15 per side of rachis; pinnae 40-130 per side of rachis, linear, irregularly arranged and spreading in different planes; middle pinnae 20-50 × 1-4 cm. Male inflorescences erect, to 65 cm, with to 30 rachillae, these ca. 10 cm; female inflorescences erect, becoming arched, to 2 m, with to 40 rachillae, these to 40 cm. Fruits black, blue-black, or dark purple, ovoid to obovoid, to 1.8 × 0.9 cm; endosperm homogeneous.

Open forests, Pinus forests, open grassy areas, dunes, often on steep slopes, persisting in disturbed areas and in places subject to burning; below 1700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam].

The leaves are woven into various domestic items, especially mats and brooms, or used for thatching.

Two varieties are sometimes recognized. The one occurring in China, Phoenix loureiroi var. loureiroi, has pinnae with a thin brown line along the margins, which is lacking in P. loureiroi var. pedunculata, restricted to the Indian subcontinent. The FRPS record (13(1): 7. 1991) of Phoenix acaulis Roxburgh from China was probably based on a misidentification of P. loureiroi.