Coccothrinax fragrans Burret 1929

1.14. Coccothrinax fragrans Burret (1929: 15). Type:— CUBA. Oriente, Santiago de Cuba, ad Santiago Bay, 21 October 1916, E . Ekman 8031 (holotype S n.v., S image!, isotype BH!)

Stems length and diameter not recorded, solitary. Leaves more or less deciduous or only leaf bases persisting on stem; leaf sheath fibers 0.4(0.3–0.7) mm diameter, thin, curled toward the apex, loosely woven and forming a loose, hexagonal mesh, truncate at the apex; petioles 12.7(9.7–17.0) mm diameter just below the apex; palmans 16.5(14.5– 22.3) cm long, relatively long, without prominent adaxial veins; leaf blades not wedge-shaped; segments 40(36–44) per leaf, the middle ones 58.0 cm long and 2.8(2.3–3.0) cm wide; segments not pendulous at the apices, giving the leaf a flat appearance; middle leaf segments relatively long and narrow, tapering from base to apex, scarcely folded, flexible and not leathery, a shoulder or constriction absent or poorly developed, the apices thin, deeply splitting and breaking off; middle leaf segment apices attenuate; leaf segments not waxy or sometimes with a deciduous, thin layer of wax adaxially, indumentose abaxially, with irregularly shaped, persistent, interlocking, fimbriate hairs, each one with a rounded, raised, light green center, without transverse veinlets. Inflorescences curving, arching, or pendulous amongst the leaves, with few partial inflorescences; rachis bracts somewhat flattened, loosely sheathing, usually tomentose with a dense tuft of erect hairs at the apex; partial inflorescences 5; proximalmost rachillae straight, 8.4(6.7–11.0) cm long and 1.1(0.8–1.3) mm diameter in fruit; rachillae glabrous at or near anthesis; stamens number not recorded; fruit pedicels 2.7(2.0–3.2) mm long; fruits 7.6 mm long and 7.5 mm diameter, color not recorded; fruit surfaces smooth or sometimes with projecting fibers; seed surfaces deeply lobed, the lobes running from base of seeds almost to apices.

Distribution and habitat:— Cuba (Santiago de Cuba) (Fig. 12) in xeromorphic, coastal scrub, at low elevations.

Taxonomic notes:— As a preliminary species, Coccothrinax fragrans has a unique combination of qualitative character states and is recognized as a phylogenetic species. León (1939) included C. fragrans in his section Curvatae and contrasted it with C. litoralis (here C. argentata). He considered it differed from that species by its inconspicuous abaxial leaf indumentum with pale, scarce centers. Indumentum is certainly difficult to score. It is here scored as having irregularly shaped, persistent, interlocking, fimbriate hairs, each one with a rounded, raised, light green center. However, the centers are difficult to see, as pointed out by León.

Subspecific variation:—One specimen (Bailey 15090) has somewhat stiff and leathery leaf segments, and Bailey wrote on the label “trees vary in cut of lvs. and apparent blueness underneath”. Paul Craft (pers. comm.) reports that there are two populations of C. fragrans and one has much larger diameter stems than the other.