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Morphology, Architecture And Growth Of A Clonal Palm, Acoelorrhaphe Wrightii, Sara M. Edelman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Palms provide valuable commercial resources in the tropics and are dominant species in tropical lowland forests. While general biology of palms is well studied, there are gaps in the literature on palm growth through life stages and in response to environmental conditions. Literature gaps on palm growth could be caused by the slow growth of palms; it is difficult to monitor morphology and architecture for the periods of time necessary to capture changes. Acoelorrhaphe wrightii is a threatened palm native to southern Florida with an unusual adult architecture. The purpose of this dissertation was to study growth A. wrightii throughout …