Arecaceae
Ravenea

Ravenea julietiae Beentje

First published in Kew Bull. 49: 646 (1994)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is E. Madagascar. It is a tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

Biology
Moist lowland forest; on slight to steep mid slopes; 50-285 m.
General Description
Graceful medium-sized palm. TRUNK 3-10 m, 10-15 cm diam., diameter near crown c. 7 cm; basal boss to 15 cm high, 40 cm across; internodes 6-12 cm (near crown 2 cm), nodal scars c. 1 cm, bark brown-grey; wood very hard, with black fibres just below the bark; base of crown bulbous, c. 15 cm across. LEAVES 9-23 in the crown, gracefully arching; sheath 40-80 x 12-16 cm, pale green, the base abaxially with white to pale brown tomentum; petiole 30-80 cm long, proximally 3.5-6 x 2.2-4 cm across, distally 2.5-4 x 1.4-3.5 cm, deeply channelled with sharp edges, glabrescent or with a few scattered scales; rachis 1.1-2.8 m, channelled or flat for some 40 cm, keeled for the rest, green with white scattered scales, in mid-leaf 1.7-2 cm wide; leaflets stiff or with the distal part of the leaflet pendulous, the leaflets on opposite sides of the rachis at an angle of c. 90° to each other, 34-48 on each side of the rachis, the proximal 58-110 x 1.3-3.7 cm, median 47-90 x 3.3-5.2 cm (interval 4 cm), distal 10-26 x 1.2-2.3 cm, ramenta apparently none, but in young leaves sparse large ramenta over entire length of midrib. STAMINATE INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, only known dead, multiple in 5s-7s, the individual inflorescences up to 90 cm, branched to 2 orders; peduncle 38-47 cm, distally c. 5 x 3 mm across; prophyll not seen; peduncular bracts unknown, except for one found on the ground, 84 cm long; rachis 46-55 cm, distally zigzag, with about 26 branched and 5 unbranched branches; rachillae 3.5-17 cm, distally sinuous. PISTILLATE INFLORESCENCE interfoliar, solitary, erect, spreading in fruit, 250-400 cm, branched to 1 order; peduncle 145-305 cm, proximally 2-2.2 x 1.3-1.8 cm across, distally 1.5 x 1 cm across, green with silvery-brown indument; prophyll 15-20 x 5 cm; peduncular bracts 22-36 cm (inserted at 2-6 cm from the base of the peduncle), 37-114 cm (inserted at c. 13 cm), 185-225 cm (inserted at c. 19 cm), 240-280 cm (inserted at 25-115 cm); rachis 28-70 cm long; rachillae 29-34 in number, 20 (distally) -49 (proximally) cm, 2.5-4 mm across in fruit; pedicels 1-8 mm; flowers unknown. FRUIT colour unknown, ellipsoid, 22-27 x 17-20 mm and with lateral beak in younger stage, one-seeded. SEED ovoid or ellipsoid, black, 19-20 x 14-17 mm; seedcoat black, 0.2 mm thick. GERMINATION remote; eophyll bifid.
Conservation
Endangered. Numbers are very low (less than 50 trees seen ). Both southern localities (where the bulk of the population occurs) are being destroyed rapidly.
Vernacular
Sindro madiniky (Betsimisaraka, Antanambe); Saroroira (Betsimisaraka, Ampasimanolotra); Vakapasy, Anive, Anivona (Tanala/Antaisaka).
Distribution
E Madagascar, between Mananara Avaratra and Vangaindrano.
[PW]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/38668/2882196

Conservation
EN - endangered
[IUCN]

Uses

Use
Used in construction; hollowed trunks used for irrigation pipes.
[PW]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • IUCN Categories

    • IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. 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