Editing Pinanga malayan

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Fraser's Hill (1,200m ) is an old hill station  established
in the early 1900's by the  colonial English administrators
as a retreat from the hot and humid lowlands.  Situated
103 kms north of the capital of  Kuala Lumpur, it is
virtually in the  geographical centre of the main range
which runs like a backbone through the  Malay Peninsular.
There are over 30  palm species found on the 'hill' with the
Pinangas consisting of one third of  these.
The palm flora of the Malay Peninsular has developed its
most unique forms in the mid-mountain regions at an altitude
of between 700 and 1500 metres; an area of cool temperatures
and reliable moderate to heavy rainfall.

With slightly less than one half of Malaya's 240 species
of palms being restricted to this altitude, a few of them are
endemic, being confined to small isolated areas where the
palms have developed special adaptations to the peculiar soil
and habitat conditions, whereas many palms of the lowlands
being much more adaptable, are found throughout the whole
area of southeast Asia and as far away as India and Australia.
For example, ''Arenga pinnata'' occurs naturally from
India to Malesia, ''Corypha elata'' through southern India
to Sri Lanka to northern Australia and
'' Caryota mitis''
from Indo-China and Burma to Sulawesi. All are absent from
the mountains but fairly common in parts of the lowlands.
Only one mountain palm can be considered to be truly
widespread this being ''Areca triandra'' whose
distribution extends from India, IndoChina, down through the
Malay Peninsular to Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines.
The ability of a genus to diversify and speciate is very
well illustrated by the Pinangas, which are one of the most
successful understory plant groups to be found at Fraser's
Hill. About nine species can be found at Fraser's Hill in
relative abundance, growing more or less side by side. To
tell the species apart within a given locality is fairly easy
as the distinguishing characteristics are usually constant,
but the same species found in another area, for example the
lowlands or the Cameron Highlands (200 kms away) may be very
different in size, leaf arrangement and stem thickness. The
floral parts usually remain constant.

The Pinangas of Fraser's Hill are all forest undergrowth
palms with some species prefering a sparser canopy cover than
others. Most are clump-forming, but occasionally some are
found as solitary stemmed specimens even though the
particular species is usually clump forming.

What separates the Pinangas from their closest relatives,
''Areca'' and ''Nenga'' on the generic level is the
arrangement of the flowers and the position in which the
fruits are attached to the flower spikes. The flower
arrangement of ''Pinanga'' consists of a female attended
by two males on either side (called a triad) positioned in
eithera spiral or laterally opposite or alternate along the
whole length of the flower spike.

In ''Areca'' twin male flowers are restricted to the apical
half of the spike with both male and female (one large female
with a small male either side) together toward the base of
the spike either in a spiral or two-ranked arrangement. As a
result, the fruits of ''Areca'' form only at the base of
the flower spike.

In ''Nenga'' the flowers are distributed the same as
''Areca'' but only spirally. The distinguishing feature is
that the seeds are attached to the spike by their sides
(laterally), not by their ends as in both ''Pinanga'' and
''Areca''.


[[Category:Pinanga|Malayan Pinangas]]
[[Category:Palm|Malayan_Pinangas]]