Chrysalidocarpus cabadae – found wild in Grande Comore

December 8, 2023

The biggest surprise of our 2-week expedition to the Comoro Islands occurred on the outskirts of the capital, Moroni, in a landscape, once vegetated with seasonal forest, but now littered with mountains of burnt trash and half-built houses. Sprouting from the remnant vegetation was a beautiful, neat, clustering Chrysalidocarpus. It didn’t take long to realise that this was Chrysalidocarpus cabadae, a widely cultivated species, first described from garden origin, but said to be from the Comoros.

Others have reported this palm wild before. Hal Moore’s 1960s article in Principes on his brief visit to Grande Comore includes a pained account of spotting this palm from the plane window as he departed (he somehow managed to observe only the rarest Comorian palm, Ravenea moorei, in the field). Olivier Reilhes posted stunning photos of this palm in Mayotte on Flickr in 2010 – I assume these correspond to the palm grown as “Mayotte” – they are a good match for Chrysalidocarpus cabadae. This week, John Dransfield and I found a handful of other specimens of C. cabadae in the Kew herbarium. So this palm has been picked up before – but now we’ve realised what we are seeing, we can start to tidy up the story of a popular and much-loved species.

Unfortunately, Chrysalidocarpus cabadae is in serious trouble in the wild in Grande Comore. It is the only species growing in coastal forest (all others occur from about 700m upwards), and there is no lowland vegetation that has not been impacted by humans. It is vital that this palm is rolled into our “Save the Species” project - we will be looking for more populations on our next expedition in 2024.

If you want to make a difference to this important horticultural species, please consider supporting the “Save the Species” appeal. Just follow the usual link… https://palms.org/2023-save-the-species/