A “new” species of palm was discovered on the island of Madagascar, thanks to its flowering finale.
Botanists around the world are popping the corks over Tahina spectabilis, a gigantic palm tree just discovered (December 2006) in the northwest of Madagascar, even though the plant, blooming its head off, is about to die.
“Details of the flowers and branches suggested it was a species and genus of palm that had never been described before,” reports the Guardian. “Genetic tests on the plant confirmed that it comes from an evolutionary line that was not previously known to exist in Madagascar.”
Actually, plant discoveries have been coming pretty fast and furious on this big island off the east coast of Africa.
Out of the 10,000 plants native to Madagascar, 90% of them are found nowhere else in the world.
The huge palm gave itself away with a spectacular show of flowering.
Blossoming to the end
Tahina spectabilis
Photo: Xavier Metz
Whereas most palm trees bloom periodically throughout their lives, this giant shoots the moon. “Once it is fully grown, the tip of the stem branches into hundreds of tiny flowers that sap nutrients from the plant so rapidly that it collapses.” On a stroll with his family, Xavier Metz, the manager of a nearby cashew plantation, spotted the huge flower stalk cascading in the sky. He took pictures and posted them on the web, attracting the attention of the plant experts at Kew Gardens and botanists around the world.
“Ever since we started work on the palms of Madagascar in the 1980s, we have made discovery after discovery,” said John Dransfield, an English scientist. “But to me this is probably the most exciting of them all.” Tahina spectabilis is a thrill for several reasons: its size (some say it grows “six stories tall”), its novelty, and its dissimilarity from other palms thus far found on the island.
Press releases said that the tree was named for Metz’s daughter Tahina, and that “‘Spectabilis’ means ‘blessed’ or ‘to be protected.’” But we side with the Ethical Paleontologist, who believes that Tahina must mean “blessed” in Malagasy (whether it’s Metz’s daughter’s name or not); and “spectabilis” means, well, “Geez, lookadat!”
Bioclimates of Madagascar
Map: Missouri Botanical Garden
Madagascar owes its immense plant diversity primarily to two features: its range of climate zones and its isolation. There are tropical rainforests on the island’s eastern side, while the west and south, “in the rain shadow of the central highlands, are home to tropical dry forests, thorn forests, and deserts and xeric shrublands.” This shoot-the-moon palm tree was discovered in yet another bioregion, the northwest part of the island. Check out the map at right, via the Missouri Botanical Garden, which has a concerted plant research project of its own ongoing in Madagascar.
We find it curious that in the plant world, isolation is so conducive to diversity, whereas in the human social world, those environments that are least isolated tend to be the most diverse (New York City versus North Dakota). Cities seem to attract ethnic complexity, even as they destroy it—melting down distinctions in the longer run.
There is a case to be made for geographic isolation in human culture, too. We think of Gee’s Bend, a particle of land cut off by a loop in the Alabama River. The society of Gee’s Bend is not in itself diverse, but its relative isolation fostered an original flowering of its own, rare and spectacular as a six-story palm. “Gee’s, lookadeese!”
(Originally published: HFP January 18, 2008)
Update: The horticulturists of Kew Gardens bolted into action. “Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank and local partner Silo National des Graines Forestières worked with VERAMA and the local community at Antanamarina to sell seeds collected in 2007. These seeds were snapped up by the horticultural community worldwide, and, combined with high germination rates and the exchange of seed and seedlings between Kew and other botanic gardens, this species is now found growing in many public and private gardens around the world.”
Tahina spectabilis flowering near Miami, 2023
Photo: Wikimedia commons
Here’s one that bloomed in 2023 near Miami, Florida, after only 16 years. Sources there reported, “The blooms may have an odor similar to horse manure.” Or may not?
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