Greek rhopalon – club; stylos – pillar, referring to the appearance of the style in male flowers.
Solitary spineless palms. Trunks slender, smooth but marked with leaf scars. Crownshaft prominent. Leaves regularly feather-shaped, erect to spreading. Leaflets narrow, crowded. Flowers unisexual, the sexes on the same plant. Panicles produced at the base of the crownshaft below the leaves and with 2 prominent deciduous boat-shaped bracts. Fruit round to ellipsoid, red with persistent remains of stigma at one end, 1-seeded.
Moderately popular in cultivation, mostly in temperate regions.
Seeds germinate 1-3 months after sowing.
Easily recognised by the slender trunk, erect to obliquely erect feather-shaped leaves with a feather-duster-like appearance, prominently swollen crownshaft, the flower panicles produced at its base.
3 species distributed in Norfolk Island, New Zealand, Chatham Island and Raoul Island.
Boyer (1968), Uhl & Dransfield (1995).
Source: (2005). Arecaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
