Thief palm

The Essence

"Phoenicophorium borsigianum, the thief palm, owes its name to a crime: in 1857 an early specimen was stolen from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, reportedly reappearing in the private greenhouse of the German industrialist Borsig, and the genus name — from Phoenix and the Greek phorios, 'stolen' — has commemorated the theft ever since. It is the only species in its genus, a unique evolutionary lineage endemic to the Seychelles, where it is recorded on eight islands whose combined land area is only 235 km²; within that tiny range it is nevertheless today considered the commonest native palm of the Seychelles. The slender, solitary stem reaches 12–15 m yet is only about 8 cm thick and carries huge undivided, bifid leaves over 2 m long with notched orange margins and a strongly pleated surface; wind usually tears the blades into irregular segments, and new leaves emerge deep maroon. The black spines on young stems and leaf bases are generally thought to be a defence against the giant tortoises that once roamed the islands. Though a palm of the rainforest understorey, it is remarkably adaptable, colonizing even bare, eroded ground and heavily degraded forest dominated by invasive aliens. Its large dried leaves are a traditional roof-thatching material in the Seychelles — a use enjoying a renaissance for tourist infrastructure — and the species features in habitat-restoration programmes, for example on Silhouette."

First described as Astrocaryum borsigianum by K. Koch in 1859, the species received its current combination from Stuntz in 1914 (published in U.S.D.A. Bur. Pl. Industr. Invent. Seeds 31: 88), and it was long grown under the synonym Stevensonia borsigiana (also S. grandifolia). On the IUCN Red List it is assessed as Least Concern (2007). Significant populations are protected in Morne Seychellois and Praslin National Parks, and the substantial Silhouette population is managed by the Nature Protection Trust of Seychelles, which uses the species in active habitat restoration.