199

Wallichia densiflora Mart.

Synonym	:	Trachycarpus wagnerianus  Hort.ex.Becc.
Family	:	Arecaceae
Local name	:	English-Windmill palm
Flowering and fruiting period	:	May - July
Distribution	:	Nepal, India, Bhutan
Habitat	:	North India, Himalayas
Uses	:	The leaves are used as thatch. In Darjeeling the leaves are used as fodder for ponies.
Key botanical characters : Shrubby, stem less palm. Petiole and rachis rusty-felted. Leaves 1-3m leaflets dark green above, silvery sometimes with rust-coloured bands below, lateral leaflets inserted singly, alternate or lower sub opposite, longest 18-50 x 5-11cm, irregular, roughly oblong to rhombic, strongly asymmetric about midrib, edge obliquely stepped, one side more so than other, steps primrose. Terminal leaflet 17.broadly fan-shaped, 3-4 costate, usually 3-lobed, lobes primrose.Peduncle bracts to 37 x 5cm, coriaceous, narrowly elliptic, acute, tustytomentose on outside. Male rachillaeslender, densely flowered. Male flowers: cylindric, truncate, corolla lobes c.8.5 x 1mm, narrowly oblong, hooded; stamens 6; anthers c.5mm exceeding filaments. Female infl. with 7-10 stout, stiffly erect rachilla.Female flowers depressed globose. almost sunk into axis; calyx lobes c.1.5 x 2mm, broad, imbricating, fused at base; corolla lobes scarcely exceeding calyx, lobes triangular-ovate c.1.5 x 1.5mm, not overlapping; ovary ellipsoid-prismatic, acute; staminoides 0. Fruit 5-6 x 4-5mm, greenish-brown, narrowly ovoid, usually 2-seeded.