Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana

Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana, commonly called the coligallo palm (Spanish for rooster tail, a reference to the form of the leaf), is an understory palm native to Central America and southern Mexico,[1][2][3] where it grows in tropical rainforests.

Coligallo palm
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Genus: Calyptrogyne
Species:
C. ghiesbreghtiana
Binomial name
Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana
Synonyms[1]
  • Geonoma ghiesbreghtiana Linden & H.Wendl.
  • Geonoma verschaffeltii B.S.Williams
  • Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtii H.Wendl.
  • Calyptrogyne brachystachys H.Wendl. ex Burret
  • Geonoma glauca Oerst.
  • Calyptrogyne glauca (Oerst.) H.Wendl.
  • Calyptrogyne sarapiquensis Schaedtler
  • Synechanthus sarapiquensis Schaedtler
  • Geonoma spicigera K.Koch
  • Calyptrogyne spicigera (K.Koch) H.Wendl.
  • Geonoma donnell-smithii Dammer
  • Calyptrogyne donnell-smithii (Dammer) Burret

It is a stemless or short-stemmed palm with a trunk up to 2 m tall. The leaves are undivided, or pinnate with 3-9 leaflets, the terminal leaflet with a forked apex. The flowers are produced all year round, on upright inflorescences; they are monoecious, with complete temporal separation of the male and female stages. The flowers are pollinated by bats in the family Phyllostomidae. Because the flowers are made of a sweet chewable tissue (like the pulp of a fruit) they are much favoured by katydids (Tettigoniidae), whose feeding reduces the number of flowers available to be pollinated.

The inflorescences host a species of mite (Acari) which live and reproduce on the inflorescence and travel to new inflorescences by hitching a ride on the flower-visiting bats. The behaviour of parasitising another animal for transport but not food is known as phoresy. A similar phenomenon which has been more comprehensively surveyed are the mites that live in flowers visited by hummingbirds and are phoretic on these flower-visiting birds.

Four subspecies are recognized:[1]

  1. Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana subsp. ghiesbreghtiana - Veracruz, Tabasco, Chiapas
  2. Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana subsp. glauca (Oerst.) A.J.Hend. - Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua
  3. Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana subsp. hondurensis A.J.Hend. - Honduras
  4. Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana subsp. spicigera (K.Koch) A.J.Hend. - Belize, Guatemala

References
  1. Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  2. Pérez J., L. A., M. Sousa Sánchez, A. M. Hanan-Alipi, F. Chiang Cabrera & P. Tenorio L. 2005. Vegetación terrestre. 65–110. In J. Bueno, F Álvarez & S. Santiago Biodiversidad del Estado de Tabasco. CONABIO-UNAM, México
  3. Henderson, A., G. A. Galeano & R. Bernal. 1995. Field Guide to the Palms of the Americas 1–352. Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
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