Hovotravavy

The Essence

"Ravenea robustior, called 'one of the most majestic of Madagascar palms' by Dransfield and Beentje, is a massive solitary, dioecious tree palm endemic to Madagascar. Its columnar or slightly ventricose trunk rises 12–30 m into the forest canopy, carrying a shuttlecock crown of 11–25 stiff pinnate leaves, and all the inflorescence axes turn orange in fruit. It grows in moist forest across north-western, eastern and south-eastern Madagascar, from Manongarivo to Marojejy and south to Andohahela, from near sea level to about 1,000 m and occasionally to 2,000 m. The species has a rich ethnobotany: the rather bitter palm heart is eaten as a vegetable — one palm is said to be large enough to feed a whole village — young leaves are made into brooms, mature leaves into thatch, and the termite-resistant outer wood into floorboards, tables and house walls; in former days salt was extracted from the ash of the trunk pith. Yet only about 1,000 mature individuals are estimated to survive, still declining as palm hearts and stems are harvested, and the species was assessed as Near Threatened in 2012. It remains rare in cultivation, where it is sometimes mislabelled in botanic gardens as the very similar Ravenea krociana; R. robustior has thinner leaflets and grows more slowly."

Jumelle and Perrier's Flora treated the species as known from only two sites; fieldwork by Dransfield and Beentje for The Palms of Madagascar (1995) showed it to be widespread from sea level to the mountains. Even then they warned that cutting for palm heart and construction wood could push it to Vulnerable. Populations are protected in Ranomafana National Park, Marojejy, Manongarivo Reserve and Analamazaotra, but trees were still being cut inside reserves; the 2012 Red List assessment found a very large extent of occurrence yet an area of occupancy of 2,200 km² — close to the Vulnerable threshold — across 26 known locations. POWO lists one heterotypic synonym, Ravenea robustior var. kouna (1927).