Floral structure in the neotropical palms Chelyocarpus Dammer, Cryosophila Blume and Itaya H. E. Moore (Arecaceae)

Floral structure in the neotropical palms Chelyocarpus Dammer, Cryosophila Blume and Itaya H. E. Moore (Arecaceae). Condollea 66: 65-79. In English, English and French abstracts. Floral morphology and anatomy in the neotropical palm genera Chelyocarpus Dammer, Cryosophila Blume and Itaya H. E. Moore (Arecaceae: Coryphoideae, Cryosophileae) are studied in detail and the implications for the establishment of an alliance formed by the three genera, as suggested by previous researchers, are discussed. All taxa are characterized by the presence of hermaphrodite flowers, congenitally united imbricate sepals, imbricate petals, carpels basally ascidiate, but apically plicate, and crassinucellar and bitegmic ovules with a funicular aril. Most of these floral character states are also shared with other members of Cryosophileae and do not support the establishment of an alliance. The combination of an uniseriate perianth, basally united filaments and a partially syncarpous gynoecium in the endemic Peruvian palm Chelyocarpus repens F. Kahn & K. Mejia does not correspond with the diagnostic characters proposed for Chelyocarpus and is not found elsewhere in Cryosophileae