Livistona


Livistona is a genus of palms, native to southern, southeastern and eastern Asia, Australasia, and the Horn of Africa. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate fan of numerous leaflets.
Livistona is closely related to the genus Saribus, and for a time Saribus was included in Livistona. Recent studies, however, have advocated separating the two groups.
Livistona species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Batrachedra arenosella and Paysandisia archon.
Kho is the tree of Khao Kho District in Thailand.

Taxonomy

The genus was established by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae to accommodate his descriptions of two species collected during an expedition to Australia. The names published by Brown were Livistona humilis and L. inermis, describing material he had collected in the north of Australia, a partial taxonomic revision in 1963 nominated the first of these as the lectotype. His collaborator Ferdinand Bauer, the botanist and master illustrator, produced artworks to accompany Brown's descriptions, but these were not published until 1838.
Robert Brown named the genus Livistona after Patrick Murray, Baron of Livingston, a botanist and horticulturist, who was largely responsible for establishing the botanical gardens in Edinburgh, Scotland. Brown's praise for the early horticulturist begins, "… in memoriam viri nobilis Patricii Murray Baronis de Livistone,", and the latinized name of the genus is evidently derived from the name of the family's seat.

Species

The classification of the genus has been the subject of partial revisions, the following is an incomplete list of species,
by Ferdinand Bauer in Martius Historia naturalis palmarum
;Formerly placed here
The genus was the subject of a taxonomic revision in 1998.