11. Ptychosperma Labill., Mem. Inst. Par. 9:252. 1809. Blatter in J.Bomb. Nat. Hist. 23(3):527. 1915; Bailey, St. Cyc. Hort. 3:2856. 1950; Chittenden, Dict. Gard. 4:1713. 1951; Bailey, Man. Cult. Pl. (reprint ed.) 174. 1966; Whitmore, Palms Mal. 97. 1973; Essig in Allertonia 1: 415. 478. 1978.
KAMAL A. MALIK
Solitary or clump forming small-trees. Trunk 1.8-7.5 m tall, erect, smooth, often ringed, unarmed, usually with a crown of about 8 leaves, crown shaft small, light-green to greyish-green. Leaves pinnately divided, often bright green, slightly oblique or flat, 2.8 m or small, leaflets reduplicate from the base, frequently scaly and variously indumentose, jagged at the apex (fish-tail shape), apex oblique or blunt. Petiole green, unarmed, smooth. Inflorescence appearing below the crown shaft, branched, bracts 2. Flowers unisexual, arranged spirally on the rachillae in triads, only male on the upper part of rachillae. Male flowers: small, coriaceous; sepals 3, imbricate; petals 3, valvate; stamens 9-100 or more with a prominent pistillode. Female flowers: sepals 3, imbricate; staminodes small; pistil 1-locular. Fruit ovoid drupe, blackish, yellow, orange or red, 2 cm long with a short terminal beak, fleshy, inward fibrous, seed lengthwise 3-5-grooved.
A genus with c. 28 species, distributed from Bismarck archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and North Australia to Micronesia. It is represented in Pakistan by a single cultivated species.
