Huge New Palm Found -- "Flowers Itself to Death"

A couple on a casual stroll in Madagascar recently discovered a new gigantic palm that flowers itself to death.

Taller than a six-story building, with a trunk 1.5 feet (0.5 meter) in diameter, it is the most massive palm discovered to date in Madagascar.

After the plant has rocketed to its full height, a vast candelabra-like structure of flowers develops above its leaves, said William Baker, a scientist with the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London.

Baker and colleague John Dransfield have studied and cataloged the plant.

"The [structure] produces hundreds of thousands of flowers, which drip with nectar when they are open," he said. "It is truly spectacular."

Once pollinated, each flower turns into a fruit. The palm's nutrient reserves then become depleted, the crown collapses, and the tree dies a prolonged death.

The palm is dubbed Tahina spectabilis—in the local language, Malagasy, spectabilis means "blessed" or "to be protected." It's the only known palm in a genus new to science, the researchers say.

Their research appears in the January 17 issue of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

Mystery Palm

Xavier and Nathalie Metz, a French couple who run a cashew plantation in remote northwestern Madagascar, first noticed the mystery palm in September 2006 at the foot of a limestone outcrop.

The enormity of the plant and its large flowers at the top caught their eyes. They posted photos of the palm on the International Palm Society bulletin board in December 2006, where Dransfield and his team soon caught wind of the discovery.

"Clearly this was going to be an extremely exciting discovery, and I just couldn't wait to examine specimens in detail," Dransfield said in a statement.

The data and material Dransfield's team collected suggested that T. spectabilis belongs to a new genus within the palm tribe Chuniophoeniceae.

Henk Beentje, an expert on Madagascar flora at the Royal Botanic Gardens, was not involved with the study.

"The fact that [the palm] is described by some of the world's major palm experts makes [the find] pretty solid in my eyes," Beentje said.

"It will enhance our understanding of palm taxonomy, and a new genus is a substantial contribution in its own right—there are less than 200 palm genera known so far," he added.

"There might be new genera lurking elsewhere but I doubt if they would be as spectacular as this one."

Eggs in One Basket

The only three other known genera in this tribe are dotted across the Middle East, Thailand, and China.

The researchers don't know how the newly discovered palm reached the large island off the African continent, or why it destroys itself after flowering.

"The new palm is one of a small, select group of palms that behave in this way," Baker told National Geographic News.

"There is little evidence that the palm flowers frequently, suggesting that it might be rather long-lived and that reproduction is a rare event. It is certainly an extreme way to reproduce—putting all your eggs in one basket."

Conservation Efforts

Researchers have identified 90 T. spectabilis specimens so far, most scattered around a tiny patch of limestone forest just 820 feet (250 meters) in length.

"Our analyses suggest that only a very small coastal area would be suitable for the palm, and much of the vegetation in this area is highly degraded," Baker said. "Apart from a lone individual at a nearby village, no other localities are known."

To conserve the palm species, Dransfield and local assistants have set up a patrol to guard the plants.

by news.nationalgeographic.com

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Photo in the News: First View of Mercury's "Other Face"

January 16, 2008—The first of many planned images from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is showing astronomers a side of Mercury no one's ever seen before.

Mercury is tough to view from Earth, since it's so close to the sun. And when the Mariner 10 probe flew past the innermost planet in 1974 and 1975, only one side of the body was facing sunlight.

That's because Mercury rotates three times during every two orbits, so the same side of the planet is lit up every other time it is nearest to the sun—including during all of Mariner's flybys.

Added up, these factors have meant that although Mercury sits only about 57 million miles (92 million kilometers) away from Earth, for more than 30 years scientists have had almost no details about its other face.

But on Monday MESSENGER, the first mission to Mercury since the 1970s, snapped the first image of the "missing" half of the rocky world.

Among many new sights, the picture features the full Caloris Basin, a huge impact basin more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) across that sits on the border between the known and previously unknown regions of the planet.

More unprecedented images of the tiny planet are expected as the MESSENGER craft completes three flybys of Mercury before settling into orbit in March 2011.

From that point on, writes astronomer Phil Plait on the Bad Astronomy blog, "we'll get as many images of this tiny, hot, battered, dense and neglected planet as we can handle."

by news.nationalgeographic.com

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Ancient "Lost City" Discovered in Peru, Official Claims

Ruins recently discovered in southern Peru could be the ancient "lost city" of Paititi, according to claims that are drawing serious but cautious response from experts.

The presumptive lost city, described in written records as a stone settlement adorned with gold statues, has long been a grail for explorers—as well as a lure for local tourism businesses.

A commonly cited legend claims that Paititi was built by the Inca hero Inkarri, who founded the city of Cusco before retreating into the jungle after Spanish conquerors arrived.

On January 10 Peru's state news agency reported that "an archaeological fortress" had been discovered in the district of Kimbiri and that the district's mayor suggested it was the lost city.

Mayor Guillermo Torres described the ruins as a 430,000-square-foot (40,000-square-meter) fortification near an area known as Lobo Tahuantinsuyo.

Few other details about the site were offered, but initial reports described elaborately carved stone structures forming the base of a set of walls.

The state media report quotes Torres as saying the area will be "immediately declared" a cultural tourism site.

Officials from the Peruvian government's Cusco-based National Institute of Culture (INC) met with Torres on Tuesday, according to Francisco Solís, an INC official.

"It is far too early to make any definitive judgments," Solís told National Geographic News. "We are going to dispatch a team to investigate."

Officials expect more details to emerge in the coming days, he said.

Legend of Paititi

Paititi is believed to have been located somewhere east of the Andes Mountains in the rain forest of southeastern Peru, southwestern Brazil, or northern Bolivia.

In 1600 a missionary reported seeing a large "city of gold" in the region where Paititi is believed to have been built, according to archival records discovered by an Italian archaeologist in 2001.

However, the location of the newfound site falls counter to where historical records indicate Paititi should be, Solís said.

Officials were nonetheless intrigued by the possibilities, he added.

The first task will be to determine if the newfound ruins are the work of the Inca or pre-Inca ethnic groups, Solís said.

Gregory Deyermenjian, a U.S.-based psychologist and explorer who has led many expeditions to investigate the Paititi legend, said many people in the tourism-rich region of Cusco have embraced the legend as a business promotion.

But he said the claims could have merit, as there are still many important sites to be found.

"It is a bit off the beaten path but still within the Inca's reach," Deyermenjian said. "I'm very interested to know more."

Daniel Gade, professor emeritus in geography at the University of Vermont, cautioned about jumping to conclusions.

"Paititi is frequently the first thing people mention when something like this is found," Gade said, adding that there are many ruins in the jungle regions of the area.

by news.nationalgeographic.com

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