The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Hyophorbe amaricaulis
Loneliest palm is a single surviving tree of a species endemic to Mauritius, known only from one specimen at Curepipe Botanic Gardens. It is grown as an endling, so propagation and survival depend on that one plant.
Hyophorbe amaricaulis (also known as the "loneliest palm") is a species of palm tree of the order Arecales, family Arecaceae, subfamily Arecoideae, tribe Chamaedoreeae. It is found exclusively on the island of Mauritius, and only a single surviving specimen has been documented in the Curepipe Botanic Gardens in Curepipe. Thus, it is classified as an endling.
Efforts to propagate the single remaining specimen have been attempted since at least 1979 without success. Conventional horticultural methods have failed to germinate seeds. In 1979, an inflorescence was sent to the Lucknow National Botanic Garden for tissue culture, but did not arrive in a viable state. Immature seeds were collected in 1985 and sent to Trinity College, Dublin and Wye College for micropropagation. The experiment was published in 1987, where 51 isolated embryos were cultured in vitro, of which 15 grew for four months, three produced roots and two produced shoots, and one embryo grew a true leaf. Further development was not successful.
In June 1985, the palm was reported to have three infructescences and two developing inflorescences, the seeds having apparently normal embryos. Male pollen was collected with a view to pollinating the female flowers when they later opened; however, unusually cold and wet weather caused all the flowers to drop.
This species is one of nine species of palm which are indigenous to Mauritius, and one of the seven palms which are also endemic.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hyophorbe amaricaulis by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
