Hedyscepe canterburyana, the Big Mountain Palm or Umbrella Palm, is the sole species in the genus Hedescepe of the Arecaceae

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 family. It is endemic to Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island

Lord Howe Island is an irregularly crescent-shaped volcanic remnant in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand, directly east of mainland Port Macquarie, and about from Norfolk Island. The island is about 11 km long and between 2.8 km and 0.6 km wide with an area of...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and is threatened by habitat loss. It is a solitary palm with a distinct crownshaft, and bears unisexual flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s of both sexes. With the Rhopalostylis

Rhopalostylis

Rhopalostylis is a genus of two species of palms native to the South Pacific. Both are smooth-trunked, with regular ringed scars from fallen leaves. The leaves are 3–5 metres in length, and the leaf bases encircle the trunk.-Distribution:R...

palms of Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island

Norfolk Island is a small island in the Pacific Ocean located between Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The island is part of the Commonwealth of Australia, but it enjoys a large degree of self-governance...

 and New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 it forms the botanic subtribe Rhopalostylidinae

Rhopalostylidinae

Rhopalostylidinae is a botanical subtribe consisting of two genera of palms from Australia and New Zealand, Hedyscepe and Rhopalostylis...

. If differs from Rhopalostylis in minor floral details including having more than six stamens, and in being protandrous rather than protogynous. The two genera were formerly included in Archontophoenicinae

Archontophoenicinae

Archontophoenicinae is a botanical subtribe consisting of four genera of palms, namely Archontophoenix from Queensland and New South Wales and Actinokentia, Chambeyronia and Kentiopsis from New Caledonia.-Description:...

 until a revision in (Dransfield, Uhl et al., 2005).

Description

H. canterburyana is a slow-growing palm up to 10 metres tall which grows on mountain forests, cliffs, and exposed ridges overlooking the sea, at about 400 to 750 metres of altitude. It has a slender, close-ringed trunk, a prominent silvery crownshaft

Crownshaft

An elongated circumferential leaf base formation present on some species of palm is called a crownshaft.The leaf bases of some pinnate leaved palms form a sheath at the top of the trunk surrounding the bud where all the subsequent leaves are formed.The crownshaft...

 and a compact crown of dense, dark green, stiffly arching recurved fronds somewhat reminiscent of those of Howea belmoreana

Howea belmoreana

Howea belmoreana, the Curly Palm, Kentia Palm, or Belmore Sentry Palm, is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family.It is endemic to Lord Howe Island, Australia...

. The egg-shaped fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 are deep red when ripe, and about 4 cm long. They appear in densely bunched fruiting spikes from below the crownshaft. Each fruit contains a single seed.

Cultivation

Lord Howe Island has a subtropical climate. Summers are mild to warm with regular rain, and winters are wetter and somewhat cooler. Average maximum temperatures range between 17C and 20C in winter and from 24C to 27C in the summer. In winter, Average minimum temperatures range between 12C and 15C, and 18C to 22C in summer. Humidity averages in the 60 to 70 per cent range all year round.

With its arching fronds, H. canterburyana is a very attractive palm which is becoming increasingly popular among garden enthusiasts in cool subtropical and warm temperate climates. It is difficult to grow in the tropics or where nights are never cool, but does well in climates like Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, and can tolerate the occasional light frost once established. It needs a rich organic soil, and shelter from sun for at least the first five years. It also does well in containers or as indoor plants where light is good. Single plants are capable of producing fertile seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

. Fresh seed is slow and erratic in germination, with seedlings appearing from five to 18 months after they are sown. Fruit take up to four years to ripen and it is not easy to tell when the seeds are ripe.

Sources

• Dransfield, John, Natalie W Uhl, Conny B Asmussen, William J Baker, Madeline M Harley, and Carl E Lewis 2005. 'A new phylogenetic classification of the palm family, Arecaceae'. Kew Bulletin, Vol. 60 (2005).
• Jones, David L. 1995. Palms Throughout the World. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington D.C.
• Jones, David L. 1996. Palms in Australia. Reed Books, Melbourne.
• Johnson, D. 1998. Hedyscepe canterburyana. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 20 July 2007.
• Krempin, Jack 1990. Palms & Cycads Around The World. Herron Books, Fortitude Valley, Queensland.
• Uhl, Natalie W. and Dransfield, John 1987. Genera Palmarum - A classification of palms based on the work of Harold E. Moore. Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas. ISBN 0935868305 / ISBN 978-0935868302.