Family:
Arecaceae Bercht. & J.Presl
Genus:
Ravenea H.Wendl. ex C.D.Bouché

Ravenea moorei J.Dransf. & N.W.Uhl

This species is accepted, and its native range is Comoros (Njazidja).

[PW]
Distribution
Comoro Islands: Grande Comore.
Biology
Secondary moist forest; 500-800 m.
Conservation
Endangered. Seed of this species was collected by DeArmand Hull in October 1993 at the north end of Grand Comore at c. 500 m, above Mitsamouli; only two female trees were seen by Mr. Hull. He considers them highly endangered due to continuing agricultural pressure on the forest in this area.
General Description
Robust tree palm. TRUNK to 20 m, 11-35 cm diam., with a hemispherical base up to 105 cm across and some 40 cm high, diameter near the crown c. 13 cm (from a photo), scars visible, internodes c. 20 cm long in the lower trunk, much shorter towards the apex; nodal scars not very prominent; bark grey-brown; base of crown bulbous. LEAVES 11-19 in crown, porrect or spreading, straight, held on edge in distal half, 2.26-3 m long; sheath up to 60 x 19.5 cm, soon splitting, margins with long fine fibers, abaxial surface covered with thick tomentum, white in unexposed areas, turning brown on exposure, becoming thinner distally; petiole 10-25 cm long, 2.4-4.5 cm wide, 1-1.5 cm thick, adaxially flattened, abaxially ± rounded, sparsely tomentose abaxially, glabrous adaxially; rachis 1.3-2.4 m long, abaxially rounded, adaxially shallowly grooved or keeled (keel to 10 mm wide, narrowing in the more distal part to a sharp narrow keel), laterally grooved, sparsely tomentose to whitewaxy abaxially, in mid-leaf 1.7-2 x 1.2 cm across; leaflets 60-80 on each side of the rachis, the proximal very crowded, 15-54 x 0.8-1.7 cm, median 49-70 x 2-2.5 cm (interval 2.5-2.8 cm), distal 12-43 x 0.4-1.7 cm, main veins c. 5, the midrib the largest, prominent adaxially, abaxially bearing a few conspicuous, close, regularly arranged large pale ramenta, transverse veinlets obscure, caducous tomentum present abaxially near the base. STAMINATE INFLORESCENCE solitary (only known dead) c. 90 cm long, branched to 2 orders; peduncle c. 35 cm long, 1.5 cm across, rounded in cross section, bracts not known; rachillae numerous, slender, up to 15 cm 1.5 mm. PISTILLATE INFLORESCENCE solitary, c. 1.5 m long, spreading or pendulous, branched to 1 order; peduncle 60-90 cm, ellipsoid in cross-section, proximally 1.9-2 x 12 mm, distally c. 15 x 11 mm, green with caducous, soft brown tomentum; prophyll tubular, 2-keeled, c. 20 x 5 cm, rather thin, bearing caducous pale brown tomentum, tattering and becoming fibrous with age; peduncular bracts with the longest one c. 130 x 5 cm; rachis c. 60 cm long, glabrous and dotted; rachillae numerous, c. 100, rather stiff, straight, glabrous, green, the proximal ones 30-47 cm with flattened base 7 x 3.5 mm, the distal ones 15-20 cm; bracteole at lowermost rachilla ovate and attenuate, c. 45 x 11 mm, pedicels 0.5-5 x 1-1.5 mm; pistillate flowers not known. FRUIT yellow to orange, globose, c. 16 mm (when dry 11-14 mm), one-seeded, stigmatic remains lateral to sub-basal, persistent sepals triangular, c. 1.2 x 1 mm; persistent petals similar but smaller; epicarp smooth, wrinkling on drying, mesocarp fleshy, c. 1.3 mm thick, endocarp not differentiated. SEED spherical, 9-11 mm diameter, dark brown.
Vernacular
Inazi (fide St. John, but this resembles Swahili for coconut).

[PW]
Use
Not recorded.

Native to:

Comoros

Ravenea moorei J.Dransf. & N.W.Uhl appears in other Kew resources:

Date Reference Identified As Barcode Type Status Has image?
Jan 1, 2006 Labat, J.N. [3809] K000525912 No
Jan 1, 1995 Moore, H.E. [9028], Comoros K000114666 isotype Yes
Jan 6, 1984 St. John, H. [26542], Comoros K000114667 No
29047.961 No

First published in Principes 30: 159 (1986)

Accepted by

  • Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Literature

Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

  • J. Dransfield & H. Beentje, The Palms of Madagascar. 1995

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

    Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
    Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0