MANILA PALM
Above you see the handsome, smallish, feather-leafed or pinnate-leafed palm at the entrance to Mayan Beach Garden. Palm fanciers may recognize it as a close relative to the famous, stately, much larger Royal Palm. This is a much-planted species native to the Philippines, VEITCHIA MERRILLII. Since it's planted so extensively it goes by many names. In the US often it's called Christmas Palm because it produces olive-size red fruits but internationally it seems to be best known as Manila Palm, and of course some call it Dwarf Royal Palm. Notice the curious way the flowers arise midway the trunk.
Above you see a honeybee lifting from one of its flowers. Veitchias are monoecious, which means that on one plant you get unisexual male and female flowers. In the picture you can make out an oval ovary amidst the cluster of pollen-producing stamens, so that ovary must be sterile, because the stamens seem to be doing a good job producing white pollen. Notice the pollen bag on the honeybee's back leg.
Plants & Animals of
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At
the right is a cluster of Veitchia nuts, photographed in the northern Yucatan.