Lifou palm

The Essence

"Cyphophoenix nucele is a solitary pinnate palm known from a single island: Lifou, in New Caledonia's Loyalty Islands. The IUCN calls it the only palm native to the Loyalty Islands, and a Province Sud field guide notes that the territory's other 39 palm species all occur on Grande Terre; Palmpedia adds that it is the only endemic New Caledonian palm growing on limestone. Harold E. Moore described it in 1976, in Gentes Herbarum. Its area of occupancy and extent of occurrence are both just 8 km2. The 2016 Red List assessment reports 113 mature individuals counted in the area surveyed, in the single known subpopulation running from Jozip to Thuahaik, with good regeneration observed although no seed was produced in 2014 or 2015; total population size is not precisely known. Rats destroy seed on the infructescences, wild pigs damage the habitat, and slash-and-burn agriculture may reduce it further. An action plan run by the NGO Noe together with the Jozip tribe monitors the population and has led to a nursery at Jozip. Horticultural sources still repeat the older figure of fewer than 100 plants left in the wild. In cultivation the palm is scarce, with larger specimens described as extremely difficult to find, though its seeds sprout readily."

Drehu speakers formerly used the fruits as sling projectiles for hunting birds, the use behind the local name that gave the species its epithet, and the palm was formerly harvested for its edible heart. It was assessed as Critically Endangered in 1998 because of its single location; better knowledge gained through the Noe monitoring programme led to the current Vulnerable listing. It occurs in no protected area, and although legally protected in Province Nord and Province Sud it is not protected in Province des Iles, where it actually grows, because no such legislation exists there yet. A CITES listing has been recommended.