Synechanthus
(from syneches, continuous, and anthos, a flower; in allusion to the arrangement of the inflorescence)., SYNS. Rathea, Reineckia. ORD. Palmae. A small genus, consisting of two Central American and one Columbian species of gregarious, unarmed, stove Palms. Flowers greenish or the males purplish, minute; spathes many, tubular, membranous, persistent; spadices many, on long and slender peduncles, erect in flowering, with straight, compressed or ancipitous branches. Fruit reddish-yellow, shining, ellipsoid, one-seeded. Leaves terminal, equally pinnatisect; segments broad or narrow, membranous, acuminate, plicate-nerved, often interrupted, the margins recurved at base; rachis convex at back, deeply keeled above; petioles channelled above; sheaths short, opening. Trunk slender, annulate, often stoloniferous. S. fibrosus, the only species introduced, is an exceedingly graceful Palm, requiring similar treatment to Chamaedorea (which see).
S. fibrosus (fibrous-rooted).* fl. in two-ranked, short, linear clusters; spathes several; spadices one-third as long as the leaves, the branches many, very slender, forked. fr. orange-red, sessile, 1in. to 1 1/4in. long. l. 4ft. long, erect and spreading; leaflets numerous, 1ft. to 1 1/2ft. long, spreading and rather pendulous, linear-lanceolate. Trunk 4ft. high, green. Central America. (B. M. 6572.)