chaos Rhapis chaotica, a Common Species

[Pal Meir]

It seems there is (almost) no place on Earth where you can get reliable designations of Rhapis species. I can only report here on a couple experiences I made with purchased seeds and in botanical gardens.

»R. humilis« seeds (1983) became R. subtilis palms:

Another »R. humilis« seed batch (2004) was finally R. micrantha:

»R. excelsa« seeds were definitely not excelsa, but perhaps R. humilis or R. siamensis or ???:

 

[Pal Meir]

Also on my last visit at Berlin BG, a »R. humilis« with all characteristics of R. excelsa:

On my New Year’s trip to Singapore in 1978 I found a label with »R. humilis« on a fruiting tree; that meant there were seeds of R. humilis!  But on a closer look I got disappointed, the R. humilis looked very much like R. subtilis (as my seeds from 1983):

And it is not much better with the botanical literature. If you compare the characteristics e.g. of R. robusta in Hastings 2003, Henderson 2009, and [smbk.forestry.gov.cn] (of the Chinese government) you get completely confused, and this is only one example …

[doranakandawatta]

My God ! 

How can we understand who's who then?
Could IPS and "Palms" help to prepare a revision of this genus, it would be great !

It reminds me this question:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/40381-strange-rhapis-in-thabits-garden/#comment-626137

[Pal Meir]

26 minutes ago, doranakandawatta said:

My God ! 

How can we understand who's who then?
Could IPS and "Palms" help to prepare a revision of this genus, it would be great !

It reminds me this question:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/40381-strange-rhapis-in-thabits-garden/#comment-626137

Relying on your photos the Rhapis Thabitica looks to me also most of all like R. subtilis.  But it is mostly almost impossible to make a decision only on the base of photos.

And yes: We need a »Revision of the Genus Rhapis«!

[Pal Meir]

As one example among many others I bumped today into this site about Rhapis subtilis (http://www.palmweb.org/cdm_dataportal/taxon/81248c36-059c-41dc-8a36-136fd4025de9): You can see a photo of a Rhapis with blades consisting of 18 leaflets (very similar to R. multifida) and read in the description that the leaves have only 2-11 segments …  I could add countless more examples …

[Pal Meir]

Another frustrating example: Rhapis robusta.
Henderson 2009: »Stems … to 1.5 m tall and 0.6 cm diameter. … blades … divided into 3-6 leaflets.«
Ministry of Forestry/China [smbk.forestry.gov.cn]: Stems 2-2.5 tall and ca. 2 cm diameter, blades with 5(6-7) leaflets [+photo].

[Pal Meir]

Rhapis robusta continued:

»The tiny fan-shaped leaves are deeply divided into three or four short and broad segments which are only 5 cm (2 in.) long and 2.5 cm (1 in.) wide.« http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/pix/RhaRob.shtml

And here a detail of one attached photo: I can count up to fourteen (14) long segments …

 

[Pal Meir]

In the past I purchased 6 batches of Rhapis seeds with these results:
humilis (1981) > subtilis
multifida (2003) ok
robusta (2003) ok
excelsa (2004) > sp. (cochinchinensis?)
gracilis (2004) ok
humilis (2004) > micrantha
»ok« means that the plants matched the descriptions by Hastings 2003 or Henderson 2009.

PS: According to Henderson 2009 the RPS »R. robusta« on the photo above has to be R. laosensis (= cochinchinensis).