Ravenea madagascariensis Becc.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/38673/2882611

Conservation

LC - least concern

Distribution

Central and E Madagascar: Manerinerina and Andasibe to Kalambatitra and Midongy.

General Description

Graceful palm. TRUNK 5-12 m, 16-22 cm diam., near crown 8-15 cm diam.; wood hard, with black fibrous layer just below the bark; base of trunk often thickened, the boss 10-60 cm high and 38-40 cm across, often with surface roots; trunk occasionally with remaining sheath bases in distal part; internodes 3.5-14 cm, brown or grey; nodal scars c. 2.5 cm; base of crown bulbous, 22-28 cm across. LEAVES 10-26 in the crown, sometimes with a few marcescent leaves; leaves porrect, straight in shuttlecock mode or less often slightly arching, often with the distal part held on edge; sheath 30-104 cm, the base 15-40 cm wide, dull brown with whitish brown to grey-brown tomentum, glabrescent, with fibrous edges, the fibres reflexed; petiole 20-80 cm, proximally 4.5-7 x 2-3.5 cm across, distally 3-4.5 x 1.5-2.5 cm across, adaxially channelled with sharp edges, with the same tomentum as the sheath, glabrescent; rachis 1.9-3 m, in mid-leaf 1.5-2.5 x 1.2-2 cm, keeled in the distal half, when young with whitish tomentum over green, but soon glabrescent; leaflets pale or rich green, occasionally slightly waxy, in one plane or at an angle of up to 45° with the rachis, 55-82 on each side of the rachis, the proximal 31-90 x 0.3-3.5 cm, the median 54-95 x 2.2-5.2 cm (interval 1.2-2.3 cm), the distal Nov-40 x 0.3-3.5 cm, often with the terminal pair partly joined, main veins 4-6, ramenta red- brown, large, abundant along the midrib abaxially but quickly caducous leaving few on the basal part, occasionally with some on the smaller veins, margins often uprolled. STAMINATE INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, multiple in 4s-9s, the innermost opening, the outermost often remaining in bud stage until abscising; individual inflorescences branching to 2 orders; peduncle 40-119 cm, proximally 06-Oct mm across, distally the same or slightly thinner, green, proximally with a dense grey-brown tomentum thinning out towards the distal end, but glabrescent; common prophyll 18-23 x 8.5 cm, tattering; peduncular bracts 26-33 cm, 53-57 cm, 120-158 cm (inserted at c. 30 cm from the base of the peduncle), 131-162 cm (inserted at c. 40 cm), densely pubescent abaxially, adaxially smooth, glabrous, red-brown; non-tubular peduncular bract 11-13.5 x 0.7-0.8 cm; rachis 37-63 cm, proximally tomentose but quickly glabrescent, with -16 30-46 branched first order branches and 0-36 unbranched ones, all branches porrect; proximal rachis bracts 01-Aug x 0.4-0.8 cm; first order branches glabrous, cream or green, with 01-Mar rachillae, at the base 03-Jun x 02-Apr mm; rachillae 3.5-20 cm, 1 mm across, sinuous in the distal part. STAMINATE FLOWERS dense, yellowish, sweetly scented; pedicel 0.3-2 mm; bracteole 0.6-0.7 x 0.3

Vernacular

Anivo, Anivokely, Anivona (general); Tovovoko (Ifanadiana).

Conservation

Rare. The species is fairly widespread, and in areas such as Ifanadiana it may be locally common. The only protected population is the one in Mantady National Park.

Biology

Moist to rather dry hill forest, on steep slopes or hill crests, occasionally on steep slopes in riverine forest; 25-1700 m.