Editing Hyphaene coriacea

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[[File:Hyphaene_coriacea.jpg|frame|Figure 1. ''H. coriacea'' ]]
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===The iLala Palm of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa - Part I===
A few weeks ago, someone asked me
"What is your favourite palm?".
Pondering the answer, I thought of obvious
choices like
the Royal Palm (''Roystonea regia''),
the Petticoat Palm (''Copernicia macroglossa''),
the African Date Palm (''Phoenix dactylifera''),
the Jelly Palm (''Butia capitata''),
the Fishtail palms (''Caryota'' spp.),
the Lady Palm (''Rhapis excelsa''),
the Foxtail Palm (''Wodyetia bifurcata'')
and a number of other popular
candidates. But the answer was none of
these. My favourite palm, if there has to
be one, is the Natal iLala,
''[[Hyphaene coriacea]]''. Perhaps the reason is that
seeing these palms always means that I'm off
on a trip somewhere, either north or south
from Durban, and the first sightings of the
wild stands of iLalas along the roadside
means that the trip is well underway. Quite
apart from that association, ''H. coriacea'' is
important economically and is a dramatic
and attractive feature plant much worthy
of greater horticultural attention.
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===Distribution:===
Of the ten or so species in the genus
''Hyphaene'' which are found in Africa,
coastal Arabia, western Madagascar and
southern India, it is ''[[Hyphaene coriacea]]''
Gaertn. (synonyms ''H. natalensis'' Kunze,
also erroneously known as ''H. crinata''
Gaertn.) which occurs southernmost. This
species has a scattered subtropical coastal
distribution in fairly hot and locally
relatively dry areas in KwaZulu-Natal,
southern Mozambique and some parts of the
Eastern Transvaal lowveld. Following
Dransfield (1986), it is the same species
(in synonymy with ''H. turbinata'' and
''H. pyrifera'') which extends much further into
tropical east Africa and Madagascar.
The habitat altitudes vary from sea-level
to a few hundred metres and rainfall is
between 750 and 1 200mm per annum,
falling mainly in summer. Stands of iLala
are seen south from Durban, plants becoming
quite abundant from Scottburgh to the
Province's southern border at the Umtamvuna River,
and north from Durban, especially in the sandy plains of
Maputaland where, in some areas, it is the
dominant component of the vegetation.
Other well-known plants in these
localities include the fever-tree,
''Acacia zanthophloea''; other ''Acacia spp''.;
the Marula, ''Sclerocarya birrea'' var. ''caffra'';
the giant ''Strelitzia nicholae'';
''Combretum molle''; ''Schotia brachypetala'';
''Strychnos'' and ''Maytenus'' species and
''Syzygium cordatum''. The wild date palm,
''Phoenix reclinata'' Jacq., is common in adjacent sites
with somewhat better water supplies, e.g
along stream beds. The abundance of the
two palm species leads to the name
palmveld being used to describe this
vegetation in Maputaland.
Figure 2. Dramatic costapalmate leaf of ''H. coriacea''.
Figure 3. The trunk of a tall, mature specimen
showing scars from leaf and inflorescence bases.

===Description:===
''Hyphaene coriacea'' may have trunks up to
about 9m in height and 40cm in diameter
with occasional dichotomous branching,
but may also occur as a short-stemmed
cluster of plants. Trunks are scored
horizontally and prominently with the scars
from old leaf B\bases. Older and longer stems
tend to recline and suckering occurs from
the base to allow clump development. The
leaves are robust, thick, costapalmate, up
to 1.5m in diameter on a 1.5m long
petiole, the latter armed with thick, black,
recurved thorns along its margins. The
foliage is attractively grey-green with a
whitish bloom on the leaf undersurfaces.

Like all borassoid palms, the iLala is
dioecious. The inflorescence on male
plants is pendulous from the leaf axils and
terminates in catkin-like rachillae. Female
plants similarly bear pendulous
inflorescences from the leaf axils, on which great
bunches of fruit later develop, up to 2000
per plant being recorded.

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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA1.JPG|frame|Figure 2. ''H. coriacea'' female plants in habitat near Hluhluwe in northern KwaZulu-Natal.]]
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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA2.JPG|frame|Figure 3. ]]
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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA3.JPG|frame|Figure 4. The male inflorescence of ''H. coriacea'' terminates in catkin-like rachillae.]]
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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA4.JPG|frame|Figure 5. ]]
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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA5.JPG|frame|Figure 6. ''H. coriacea'']]
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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA6.JPG|frame|Figure 7. ''H. coriacea'']]
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[[File:Hyphaene_ILALA7.JPG|frame|Figure 8. ''H. coriacea'']]
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===External Links:===
[https://powo.science.kew.org/results?q=Hyphaene%20coriacea Kew], 
[https://www.palmweb.org//?q=cdm_dataportal/taxon/90da91b5-d53f-4196-b28c-104ecc3a0cf9 PalmWeb],
[https://www.jstor.org/action/doBasicSearch?Query=Hyphaene+coriacea JSTOR],
[https://www.trebrown.com/plant_info.php?species=Hyphaene+coriacea Trebrown]
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[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Hyphaene+coriacea%22&amp;num=10&amp;sa=Google+Search Google],
[https://images.google.com/images?q=%22Hyphaene+coriacea%22&amp;hl=en&amp;btnG=Google+Search GoogleImages],
[https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=Hyphaene+coriacea Flickr],
[https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Hyphaene+coriacea%22%20site:https://www.palmtalk.org/&amp;sa=Google+Search PalmTalk]
<p>
[[Category:Hyphaene|coriacea]]
[[Category:Palm|Hyphaene_coriacea]]