Palms of Ambodiriana reserve - Madagascar

[olivier971]

I know you've all been waiting for them, so here are the first pictures of our trip to Madagascar, with my friends of Palmeraie Union Society.

And to start, I suggest you explore the Ambodiriana reserve, a fantastic reserve located on the east coast, north of Tamatave.
This reserve is managed by a dynamic organization based in La Reunion island, ADEFA: http://www.adefa-madagascar.org

We were amazed by the richness of the place and the incredible diversity of palms. Identifications of some species remain to be more defined.

Dypsis psammophila :



Ravenea sambiranensis :



Dypsis sp. (hiarakae ?):



Dypsis hovomantsina :

[olivier971]

Dypsis fanjana :

[olivier971]

Dypsis tsaravoasira :









Dypsis tsaravoasira “orange” :

[olivier971]

Ravenea sp. (julietiae ?) :



Dypsis integra :

[olivier971]

Dypsis forficifolia :

[olivier971]

Dypsis pachyramea :

[olivier971]

Dypsis viridis :

Ravenea dransfieldii :

[Kennybenjamin]

Very very cool!! I hope you have hundreds of photos to post!!!

Thanks for keeping us all in touch with the Madagascan species, your posts are always more than welcome!! I love them!!

[olivier971]

Dypsis sp. (bernieriana ?) :







Dypsis faneva :

[olivier971]

Dypsis paludosa :







Orania longisquama :

[olivier971]

Dypsis perrieri :

[olivier971]

Dypsis sp. (fasciculata ?) :

[olivier971]

Dypsis sp. (boiviniana ?) :

[olivier971]

Dypsis linearis :

[olivier971]

Dypsis lastelliana :





Dypsis fibrosa :

[olivier971]

Satranala decussilvae :

[olivier971]

Orania ravaka :

[olivier971]

Dypsis concinna :

[olivier971]

All photos of this beautiful reserve here :

Of course, please do not use them without my permission .. : wink:

[Tyrone]

Awesome pics. Thanks for sharing.

[Daryl]

Wow! Stunning! thanks Olivier!

[Mandrew968]

Those are some of the greatest habitat photos I have ever seen--In order to compare them to something, I inevitably went back to some of your previous posts! I don't doubt one ID you gave--that Dypsis linearis is very interesting... THANK YOU, OLIVIER!

[Zeeth]

Wow! Thanks for the pictures, they were great! Now I want a Dypsis hovomantsina. Does anyone know if it grows in Fl?

[palmislandRandy]

Oliver, Thanks for taking the time to post these magnificent photos. I just spent an hour drooling on my keyboard.

[Alicehunter2000]

The variety of forms is amazing.....are there any areas of Madagascar that experience -6.7 C. on occasion (with frost)? If so...do these area's have palms? Can you describe the habitats and weather conditions on some of these species. Everyone always wants to know if they can grow something new.

[colin Peters]

Thank you so much, really beautiful

aloha

[Dr. George]

Wonderful! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - gmp

[Kim]

You manage to get such wonderful photos, even in the tangle of habitat. Fantastic, and very educational! I had never imagined D. lastelliana so tall as that first photo. I have taken some notes and may add a few of these to my garden. Thrilling to see the bright leaf scar on the D. hovomantsina; I have three that are perhaps 12 inches in height.

Thank you so much for sharing this series of photos.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Beautiful! I've never even heard of many of these species. Must have been like being a kid in a candy store. The Dypsis sp. boiviniana almost looks like a ratan.

[bgl]

Olivier,

What an amazing collection of great photos! I know how difficult it can be to get good photos of palms in habitat and I was impressed by many of your photos. What an exciting trip this must have been!

Bo-Göran

[mike in kurtistown]

I will just echo what Bo has said. The quality of these images is amazing, especially considering that they are habitat photos.

[richnorm]

Up to your usual high standard!

[BS Man about Palms]

WOW WOW WOW.. That is all...

[edric]

Great photos, and a very well done display, I'll stop everything I'm doing, and add them to Palpedia, thank you Olivier for your hard work! Ed

[Jeff Searle]

Oliver,

First, many thanks for taking the time to post your amazing pictures. These are really worth taking the time to enjoy. I never spent time in this forest but I would think it's as palm rich as the Marojejy Mtns. or the Masoala area.

Let me ask, I'm curious on all of your palm id's, did you have guides to help, or did you use the POM book to help you or were you just familiar with these species? I really loved the D. integra and D. pachyramea palms. Just stunning!

Also, were many species seeding this time of the year? I would guess no?

Many thanks again,

Jeff

[olivier971]

Great photos, and a very well done display, I'll stop everything I'm doing, and add them to Palpedia, thank you Olivier for your hard work! Ed

Please Edric, ask for the permission before using them elsewhere. You didn't !!

So, for the moment, please do not add to Palmpedia. I think that sometimes, you add on palmpedia some pictures too quickly, before be sure of the Id. That's why there are probably mistakes on this website, especially on Dypsis.

Some of this iD need to be confirmed. We work actually with the guides of the reserve that will send us later photos of flowers, fruits and seeds to bbe sure of our first Id. So please wait for them to be sure of what you add on Palmpedia. So i will tell you later the species you can add to palmpedia and those who can't because we are not totally sure of the Id

Thanks a lot !!

[olivier971]

Oliver,

First, many thanks for taking the time to post your amazing pictures. These are really worth taking the time to enjoy. I never spent time in this forest but I would think it's as palm rich as the Marojejy Mtns. or the Masoala area.

Let me ask, I'm curious on all of your palm id's, did you have guides to help, or did you use the POM book to help you or were you just familiar with these species? I really loved the D. integra and D. pachyramea palms. Just stunning!

Also, were many species seeding this time of the year? I would guess no?

Many thanks again,

Jeff

The id of Dypsis and Ravenea in habitat are very very difficult and we have sometimes a lot of surprises because of the incredible polymorphism of this species depending on the conditions where they grow.

To try to Id them, we worked first with the guides that have very good botanical knowledges. The use of malagasy words helped us.

As for example, tsaravoasira means more or less "very good to eat" and hovomantsina "not to be eaten. The guides knows well the differences between those 2 species because of the possibility to eat them or not. That's why you will see on pictures some D. hovomantsina adults with fruits and not D tsaravoasira that are all young palms (because the adults were cuted and eaten before the creation of the reserve).

We work of course also with the POM and the fielguide of POM, and now we have the help of a member of Kew located in Tananarive.

So be careful of people that tell you they are sure of their ID. this is a very difficult exercice on Dypsis.

I think more i go to Mada, less i'm sure of the Id i tell you

To answer your 2nd question, no, it wasn't the season of fruits and seeds. Th flowering were just begining. That's also why we had difficulties to find the Id of some of therm.

[JD in the OC]

Spectacular photos!!! I enjoyed the Satranala especially as I germinated some of them years ago. Thanks for posting!!!

[Jeff Searle]

Thanks Oliver, I appreciate it.

[George Sparkman]

Amazing photos Olivier !

Thank You very much for posting all these photos.

What a trip !