A new species of Madagascar Palm

All but six of Madagascar’s 170 species of palm are found nowhere else in the world. And, now, a new and exciting discovery – an amazing Madagascan giant palm with a bizarre life cycle. This is as exciting to plant lovers as the recent discovery of two new moons of Pluto was to astronomers.

Half-century plant
This new palm, Tahina spectabilis, grows without ‘spectacle’ for around 50 years. Then some environmental trigger makes it burst forth into a once-in-a-lifetime flowering frenzy. It drips with nectar, feeds everything that comes to gorge on its bounty, sets seed and then the whole palm dies.

The natural habitat of the giant palm is in the north west of Madagascar, in limestone country in a remote area near the coast. Scientists say that there may be less than 100 individuals of this palm left in the wild.

Recently, one of these giant palms had a flowering event. So, seed was collected and taken to the Millenium Seed Bank Project at The RBG Kew (England) for investigation and testing.

Conservation work with locals
The Seed Bank Project workers have involved local people from a nearby village in discussions on how to protect the palm. They are working together to set up a village committee to take control of the conservation of the palm and a patrol to protect the area where it was found. A business plan is being developed to sell seed to raise income for the villagers and to distribute the palm as widely as possible.

To help conserve the plant, seed has been distributed to botanic gardens and growers around the globe including Australian Botanic Gardens.

Geelong Botanic Gardens Madagascar Collection
Even though southern Australia is in the grip of a 13 year drought, the dry soil and local climate of Geelong provides a splendid opportunity to grow some of the dry climate endemic plants from Madagascar. Visitors arriving at the Geelong BG enter through the 21st century garden and see a spectacular collection of Madagascan spiny desert plants. The only things missing are the dancing sifakas (a sort of lemur).

Will the Geelong Botanic Gardens be able to get some seed of this amazing giant palm?
Michèle Adler from Adland Tours has put RBG Kew and Geelong Botanic Gardens in touch with each other, so it is entirely possible. How exciting!

Interested in Madagascar?
Madagascar is the 4th largest island in the world, situated 300 km off the east coast of Africa. Like Australia, along with its isolation comes a unique fauna and flora.

Madagascar is home to lemurs (early primates), chameleons (weird reptiles that change colours), hundreds of birds and frogs and a strange array of plants – all found nowhere else in the world. It is rich in plant life with more than 9000 (of its 10,000) species being endemic. People may know some familiar species such as Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia millii) and Kalanchoe.

For further informaiton click here to contact Adland.

Michele Adler