| Livistona | |
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| Livistona chinensis | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Monocots |
| Clade: | Commelinids |
| Order: | Arecales |
| Family: | Arecaceae |
| Subfamily: | Coryphoideae |
| Tribe: | Trachycarpeae |
| Genus: | Livistona R.Br.[1] |
| Synonyms[2] | |
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Livistona is a genus ofpalms, thebotanical familyArecaceae, native tosoutheastern andeastern Asia,Australasia, and theHorn of Africa.[2] They arefan palms, theleaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded,costapalmate fan of numerous leaflets.[3][4][5]
L. speciosa, locally calledkho, gives its name toKhao Kho District inThailand.[6]
The genus was established byRobert Brown in hisProdromus Florae Novae Hollandiae (1810) to accommodate his descriptions of two species collected during an expedition to Australia. The names published by Brown wereLivistona humilis andL. inermis, describing material he had collected in the north of Australia, a partial taxonomic revision in 1963 nominated the first of these as thelectotype. His collaboratorFerdinand Bauer, the botanist and master illustrator, produced artworks to accompany Brown's descriptions, but these were not published until 1838.[7]
In 1983 a species of palm fromSomalia was formally transferred to the genus byJohn Dransfield andNatalie Whitford Uhl.[3]
The Australian members of the genus were subjected to a taxonomic revision byTony Rodd in 1998. Rodd added five new Australian species, increasing the size of the genus.[7] Another species was described from Vietnam in 2000. In 2009John Leslie Dowe published the latestmonograph on the genus. Along with the Indonesian botanistJohanis P. Mogea andAnders Sánchez Barfod from Denmark, he had described five new species in the previous years, further swelling the genus.[3]
For much of the history of the genus, the species of the genusSaribus were classified within the genusLivistona.Phylogenetic studies usingDNA comparisons of numerous species in the different genera in theTrachycarpeae tribe of palms, however, found that the species from thePhilippines,New Guinea and other surrounding regions were more closely related toPholidocarpus,Licuala andJohannesteijsmannia than they were toLivistona, which advocated separating the two groups taxonomically. The genus was thus revised again by Christine D. Bacon and William J. Baker in 2011, withSaribus split off and combined withPritchardiopsis jeanneneyi, decreasing the genus again.[8]
Robert Brown named the genusLivistona after Patrick Murray (1634–1671), Baron of Livingston, a botanist and horticulturist, who was largely responsible for establishing thebotanical gardens inEdinburgh,Scotland.[9][10][11] Brown's praise for the early horticulturist begins, "… in memoriam viri nobilis Patricii Murray Baronis de Livistone,", and the Latinised name of the genus is evidently derived from the name of the family's seat.[7]
The genus has adisjunct distribution, which is split into three contiguous areas. The range ofLivistona carinensis in Africa is very far away from that of the other species in the genus. In 1983John Dransfield andNatalie Whitford Uhl first suggested that this odd pattern was due to a formerly much more extensive distribution during the warmer and moister climate of theMiocene, including areas between it and the rest, but that prehistoricclimate change split them. Later DNA evidence of a mass of ancient extinctions betweenL. carinensis and the rest is thought to corroborate the theory. The recognition ofSaribus has split the remaining distribution into a group of species found inAustralia and southernNew Guinea, and another group of species inEast andSoutheast Asia.[8]
The classification of the genus has been the subject of a number of recent revisions which have reduced the number of species since the 2009 monograph. As of July 2025,Plants of the World Online accepts 28 species.[12]
Livistona species are used asfood plants by thelarvae of someLepidoptera species. In Australia, the speciesCephrenes trichopepla andC. augiades sperthias have been recorded on a number of differentLivistona species. In Asia,Elymnias hypermnestra and likelyGangara thyrsis feed onLivistona. A number of other Lepidoptera which do not naturally occur to the native range of the genusLivistona have been recorded feeding on these palms,[14] includingBatrachedra arenosella (recorded onL. subglobosa),[citation needed]Brassolis astyra astyra,Opsiphanes cassina,O. invirae andPaysandisia archon.[14]
P. archon is a giant day-flying moth of which the caterpillars known to attack the piths of a number of these palm species, along with many other genera, at least in Europe, where neither the moth nor palms are native. It can kill the palm. It prefers genera of palm with more hairy trunks likeTrachycarpus,Trithrinax orChamaerops.[15]
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