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, and Google Earth.

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.

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.

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.
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I wonder what the flowers look like.

watch out for the frickin coconuts

Here is the full picture that for some reason was being posted cropped and not showing the palm. Yes, it's a big palm, but I've seen taller but not as wide. The more interesting part is its flowering itself to death.



>> keep it real <<

Im surprised scientists cant grow one in their lab/greenhouse to find more about it?

Don't think they can find the fruit

Interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to remove say, half the flowers to encourage the plant to put more energy into fruit production and not die.

suicidal plant !

sure we can see it from google earth ? its big, but not too tall.. taller tree will covering it from space view

"So big it can be seen from space/Google Earth" LOL!
You can see individual PEOPLE on Google Earth.

And there are hundreds/thousands of plant species MUCH larger than this one.