Botanists have discovered a new species of giant self-destructing palm in Madagascar which is so large that it can be seen in satellite photos.

The plant, which only exists in the remote north-west of the island, is unlike anything else ever found on the island before.
Although villagers had known about it for many years none had seen it flower.
When this finally happened last year, botanists found that the tree spent so much energy flowering that it died.

'Spectacular'

The palm is 20m high with leaves 5m long, the tallest tree of its type in the country, but for most of its life — around 100 years — it is fairly unremarkable apart from its size. It was only when botanists from Kew Gardens in London were told of its extraordinary flowering pattern that they began to be interested. "It's spectacular," says Mijoro Rakotoarinivo, who works with Kew and has seen the tree.
"At first there's only a very long shoot like asparagus from the top of the tree and then, a few weeks later, this unique shoot starts to destruct.

"At the end of this process you can have something like a Christmas tree."

Baffling location

The branches then become covered with hundreds of tiny flowers, which are pollinated and turn into fruit. But the tree expends so much energy on flowering that it eventually collapses and dies.
Dr John Dransfield, who is announcing the new discovery, is baffled as to how the tree came to be in the country. It bears a resemblance to a species of palm found in Asia but that is 6,000km away. It is possible that the palm, which now numbers less than 100 examples, has quietly gone through a remarkable evolution since Madagascar split with India some 80m years ago.

It is now hoped that the plant will be conserved and that selling seeds can generate revenue for the people living nearby, as well as allowing gardeners across the world to own their very own self-destructing Malagasy palm tree.