Scientific name Thrinax Rank Genus | ||
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Similar Thrinax radiata, Palm trees, Coccothrinax, Leucothrinax, Acoelorrhaphe | ||
Thrinax excelsa palm
Thrinax is a genus in the palm family, native to the wider Caribbean. It is closely related to the genera Coccothrinax, Hemithrinax and Zombia. Flowers are small and bisexual, and are borne on small stalks.
Contents
Thrinax consists of four species. Three of them are single-island endemics - Thrinax ekmaniana is exclusively endemic to hills Mogotes de Jumagua, Cuba while Thrinax excelsa and Thrinax parviflora are endemic to Jamaica. The fourth species, Thrinax radiata, is more widespread - it is present in the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, south Florida, Mexico and Central America.
Thrinax garden plants
Taxonomy
In the first edition of Genera Palmarum (1987), Natalie Uhl and John Dransfield placed the genus Thrinax in the subfamily Coryphoideae, the tribe Corypheae and the subtribe Thrinacinae Subsequent phylogenetic analysis showed that the Old World and New World members of the Thrinacinae are not closely related. As a consequence of this, Thrinax and related genera have been placed in their own tribe, Cryosophileae. In 2008, Leucothrinax morrisii (formerly T. morrisii) was split from Thrinax after phylogenetic studies showed that its inclusion in Thrinax would render that genus paraphyletic.
