Dypsis lastelliana – Plant

Description

This is one of the more elegant and colorful Dypsis, and is now widespread in cultivation. With it’s large stature and fuzzy bright red crownshaft, it stands out in any setting. In the past Dypsis lastelliana, the “Redneck Palm, ” was often confused with Dypsis lepthocheilos, the “Teddy Bear Palm.” This confusion was engrained and still persists somewhat today. D. lastelliana can be differentiated from D. leptocheilos by its larger, slightly open, redder crownshaft, more “shuttlecock” leaf arrangement, and overall as a more robust palm in habitat and cultivation. D. leptocheilos differs in having an orangish, more slender crownshaft, with leafs that tend to more horizontal. Once an observer recognizes these differences, identification becomes much easier, and almost certain in most instances.

Interestingly enough, some photos from habitat show a palm with fronds tending well below the horizontal, while most palms in cultivation are oftentimes extremely “shuttlecock.” Perhaps this is explained by the variability often seen in Dypsis species. A form with striking persistent white streaks in the petiole is in cultivation and can be seen in the photos below,

A solitary palm. TRUNK 5-15 m tall, 18-25 cm in diam., with swollen base; wood hard; internodes 8-10 cm, pale green to grey waxy green, nodal scars c. 4 cm, pale brown; crownshaft 70-75 cm tall, rich velvet red-brown. LEAVES 9-15 in the crown, spirally inserted; sheath 40- 60 cm long, partially open, adaxially brilliant cherry-red, abaxially densely red-brown pubescent; petiole 0-10 cm long, proximally to 11 x 3.5 cm, distally about 6 x 3.7 cm, channelled; rachis yellowish, to 3.8 m long, in mid-leaf 1.2-2.2 x 1.5-1.6 cm in diam. and here either channelled or keeled, glabrous, sometimes waxy; leaflets (50 -) 94-102 on each side of the rachis, regular, somewhat pendulous, the proximal 39-66 x 0.7-2 cm, median 56-89 x 2.4-4.3 cm, distal 18-54 x 0.4-2.3 cm, with a few tufts of laciniate ramenta on the proximal part of the abaxial midrib, but otherwise glabrous, main veins 1, prominent adaxially, as well as margins thickened, apices bifid and acute. INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, branched to 3 orders, spreading, 1.3-2.2 x 1.2 m; peduncle 60-96 cm long, distally 2.5-3.2 x 1.7-1.5 cm; prophyll 30-52 x 6.5- 11 cm, borne at 3-13 cm above the base of the peduncle, rusty pubescent; peduncular bract deciduous, inserted at about 30 cm from the base of the peduncle, 80-110 cm long, about 12 cm wide when flat, splitting along its length but for the upper about 28 cm, with a beak of up to 7 cm long, densely reddish pubescent; rachis about 97 cm long, yellow-green, sometimes tinged red, with 13-17 branched and about 10 unbranched first order branches, the proximal of these with a rachis 2.5-3.5 x 1-1.3 cm in diam. at the base, to 45 cm long, and with up to 15 second order branches; rachis bracts up to 3 cm long, triangular and acute; rachillae pale or yellow-green, 27-47 cm long, 3-6 mm in diam., glabrous, with dense, slightly sunken triads