Kona palm

The Essence

"Masoala kona is one of only three species in Masoala, a palm genus endemic to Madagascar, and it is among the rarest palms on the island. Fewer than 60 trees are known in the wild, scattered across just three widely separated locations in the southeast between Vondrozo and Ifanadiana, giving an extent of occurrence of about 693 km2 and an area of occupancy of only about 36 km2. None of the occurrence sites lies in a protected area and the population is decreasing, with shifting agriculture and logging the main threats; the IUCN assessment - made in December 2010 and published in 2012 - calls for urgent conservation action and warns that the species could very quickly become Critically Endangered if the sites remain unprotected. What sets the palm apart is its foliage: the largest leaflets reach 165-250 cm long and are attached to the rachis for up to 1.5 m, and its leaves are credited with the longest leaf segments of any plant, up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft). The hard-wooded trunk carries a crown of erect leaves whose litter-accumulating sheaths are covered in dense red-brown tomentum. Locally, a leaf stuck in a bamboo pole is thought by some to ward off thunder-clouds; the IUCN assessment records no use and trade information."

Described as new by Henk Beentje in Dransfield & Beentje, Palms of Madagascar (1995), page 425. The protologue notes that the leaf resembles that of Marojejya insignis while the inflorescence is clearly congeneric with the much larger M. madagascariensis. The fruit is known only from empty specimens.