Syagrus Rommanziffania or Cocos Plumosa?

[JASON M]

Hey, I've seen a lot of pictures and videos that say the queen palm is Cocos Plumosa. I was taught that it was Syagrus Rommanziffania. CP or SR?

Post your thoughts below

[DoomsDave]

Jase!

As you will come to know, plant names are the subject of much argument among some well-informed, highly-inflamed, and argumentative people.

Ahem.

To answer your question, it's Syagrus romanzoffianum. Queen palm.

Bleah!

[peachy]

They were heavily marketed for many years as cocos plumosa, although they were officially classified as Arecastrum romanzoffianum, before being reclassified as Syagrus. In Australia we still just refer to them as a cocos palm, instead of a queen palm.

Aunty Peachy

[displaced_floridian]

Here is an informative link regarding the Queen Palm:

http://www.floridata.com/ref/S/syag_rom.cfm

[SouthSeaNate]

The correct current name is Syagrus romanzoffiana...

Previously, as stated, it was Arecastrum romanzoffianum & before that Cocos plumosa.

Over here they are known as Queen palms...

[paulgila]

peachy if a "queen" palm is called "cocos" over there then whats "cocos nucifera" called?

[John in Andalucia]

peachy if a "queen" palm is called "cocos" over there then whats "cocos nucifera" called?

Probably coconut, Paul. Just sayin'.

[paulgila]

"probably," eh,john?

come back when you find out "fer sure."

[John in Andalucia]

"probably," eh,john?

come back when you find out "fer sure."

"Kunga", "Warraber" (or "Warraper") and "Coconut". That's official.

[paulgila]

good.glad we got that all straightened out,now i can sleep tonite.

[Dave-Vero]

Palm taxonomy was difficult for a long time because most palms are kind of big, and it's hard to make herbarium specimens of them. Much easier to squeeze a small oak branch with leaves and acorns onto a sheet of heavy rag paper than a piece of palm leaf and a piece of inflorescence with fruits. Another reason for palms being "difficult" was because palms are tropical and during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, much of the tropics was colonized by European countries and the US. So for a while, specimens from Madagascar went to Germany (Bismarckia), Cuba to the US (Copernicia baileyana), etc. The queen palm went to St. Petersburg, Russia.

For Syagrus romanzoffiana, the first validly published name for the palm was Cocos romanzoffiana, 1822. It was published in "Voyage pittoresque autour du monde, avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amérique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des îles du Grand Océan; des paysages, des vues maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; accompagné de descriptions par m. le Baron Cuvier, et m. A. de Chamisso, et d'observations sur les crânes humains, par m. le Docteur Gall. Par m. Louis Choris, peintre. " It must have been some voyage--they even stopped in San Francisco. Despite the book(s) being published in French, the voyage was Russian. link

The name Cocos plumosa was published in London, 1830, "Cultivated at Kew, received many years ago from Messrs. Loddiges as a Brazilian species".

The palm was transferred to the genus Arecastrum by the distinguished Italian palm taxonomist Odoardo Beccari in 1916:

Agricoltura Coloniale 10: 447-448. 1916.

Finally, the palm was transferred to the genus Syagrus by Sidney Frederick Glassman in 1968. Larry Noblick provided an obituary for Mr. Glassman in Palms last year:

Fieldiana, Botany 31(17): 382. 1968. (23 May 1968)

____________

In addition to these names, there's a bunch of other redundant names, some evidently from recognizing several species instead of just one.

[peachy]

peachy if a "queen" palm is called "cocos" over there then whats "cocos nucifera" called?

Probably coconut, Paul. Just sayin'.

A coconut palm is called a coconut palm. Surprahse surprahse surprahse. The common belief here for non palm edified folk, was that rommies came from the Cocos Islands, hence the name cocos palm. The majority of the population live in the south where cocos nucifera dont live, so they wouldnt recognise one if they fell over it.

Peachy