Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (2001), 72: 115–128. With 6 figures doi: 10.1006/bijl.2000.0496, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on Intraspecific variation in Licuala glabra Griff. (Palmae) in Peninsular Malaysia— a morphometric analysis A. H. B. LOO 1 , H. T. W. TAN 1 ∗, P. P. KUMAR 1 and L. G. SAW 2 1 Department of Biological Sciences, The National University of Singapore, 3 Science Drive 2, Singapore 117543, 2 Forest Research Institute Malaysia, Kepong, 52109 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Received 28 January 2000; accepted for publication 30 September 2000 We studied vegetative and reproductive characters of 74 herbarium specimens of Licuala glabra Griff. (Palmae) collected from 22 localities throughout Peninsular Malaysia. To test the null hypothesis that there are no distinct groups within the species,cluster analysis (nearest neighbour), principal coordinates and principal components analyses were performed on the set of 43 qualitative and quantitative characters. The results obtained suggested that: (1) there are three infraspecific groups within the species,viz., the two published varieties glabra and selangorensis as well as a possible third novel taxon; (2) there is clustering of individuals corresponding to their geographic localities; (3) clusters generated using only reproductive characters indicate a biogeographic distribution of populations correlated with the mountain ranges in the peninsula.  2001 The Linnean Society of London ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: cluster analysis – principal components analysis – principal coordinates analysis – distribution. and Banjaran Timur. At higher altitudes, L. glabra INTRODUCTION inhabits the latter three ranges. There are no records Licuala glabra Griff. is an understorey palm species of the species on Banjaran Bintang.Throughout its belonging to the subtribe Livistoninae, tribe Corypheae distribution range,the species is found mostly along of the palm subfamily Coryphoideae (Uhl & Dransfield, ridges, where it can dominate the forest understorey. 1987). It is found throughout Peninsular Malaysia, no It is a pleonanthic and hermaphroditic palm and further than southern Thailand (circa 2°–6° latitudinal has a solitary stem to 4 m tall,with a crown of 9–28 range). In the most recent revision of the genus, Saw fan-shaped leaves, whose laminas are peltate-or- (1997) addressed the presence of infraspecific variation bicular. The frond is divided at the hastula into 6–33 in a number of the species. L. glabra was observed to wedge-shaped reduplicate segments 25–60×1–10 cm, exhibit geographic variation in the peninsula with the central segment equalto or much larger in size no less than eight forms informally described.The than the laterals and sometimes divided into 2–3. The variation is complex mainly due to morphologically inflorescence is longer than the leaves, 70–200 cm long overlapping forms which makes it hard to subdivide and branched to second order with 4–7 first order the species (Saw, 1997). branches and 2–6 second order branches. The flowers L. glabra is a palm of hill dipterocarp and lower are glabrous and seated on short stalks, tubercles or montane forests at altitudes of 300–1400 m; it is, how- in shallow pits. The shape of the calyx cup varies from ever, occasionally found in lowland dipterocarp forests cyathiform to cup-shaped. The 3-lobed corolla is cream- in the southern parts of the peninsula (Saw, 1997). In white with acute to blunt apices. The ovary is glabrous, Peninsular Malaysia, there are four main mountain turbinate and bears a filiform style. The species is ranges from west to east (Fig.1), viz. Banjaran Bi- distinctive from other Licuala spp. in its glabrescent ntang, Banjaran Titiwangsa, Banjaran Gunong Tahan inflorescence and glabrous flowers. ∗ Corresponding author: E-mail: dbsttw@nus.edu.sg 115 0024–4066/01/010115+14 $35.00/0  2001 The Linnean Society of London