Editing Caryota biggies

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These enormous fishtail palms have caused great problems in classification
because it is almost impossible to make reference collections for the
herbarium that show the differences that may be obvious in the field.
Thus type specimens on which the names are based are often very difficult
to interpret. Here's my interpretation for what it is worth.
''Caryota laoensis'' is easy to deal with - the name has never been
validly published so should not be used - I've no idea what is being
traded as such.
''Caryota obtusa'' was described way back in the 1840s by William Griffith
from northeast India. We know that there is a huge Caryota there, which,
from photographs, seems indistinguishable from the huge Caryota of S Yunnan,
Laos and northeast Thailand - these ranges are near enough to each other to
suggest a contiguous distribution, probably also in Burma. The population in
China was called ''C. urens'' in the '''Flora of China'''
but is very obviously not that species.
In Thailand the palm was called ''C. gigas'' by Don Hodel.
It is my belief that the NE Indian, Chinese, Lao and Thai populations are
one and the same and should therefore probably be called ''C. obtusa''.
However, to complicate matters there is a second large Caryota in northeast India,
and who is to say that this one is not the true ''C. obtusa''!
We need a very careful revision of the genus based on extensive field work.
''Caryota maxima'' is much more straightforward - this is a big palm of
Java, Sumatra, Penisnular Malaysia and S. Thailand, that grows in the mountains.
It was also called by ''C. obtusa'' var ''aequatorialis'' and
''C. aequatorialis'' - and hence the confusion with ''C. obtusa''.
You can read about ''C. maxima'', ''C. no'' and a few other species
in Principes 18:87-93.
I hope this helps - John Dransfield
(from a posting to the IPS's
[[www.palmtalk.org" Palm Talk,
by Dr. John Dransfield).
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[[Category:Caryota|biggies]]
[[Category:Palm|Caryota_biggies]]