''Paschalococos disperta'', the Rapa Nui palm or Easter Island palm, formerly '' Jubaea disperta,'' was the native coccoid

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

species of

Easter Island Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

. It disappeared from the pollen record circa AD 1650.

Taxonomy

It is not known whether the species is distinct from ''Jubaea,'' but there is no evidence that it was ''Jubaea'' either, as the soft tissues used for the identification of cocoid genera have not been preserved. All that remain are

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

from lake beds, hollow

endocarp Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers. They are found in three main anatomical categories: aggregate fruits, multiple fruits, and simple fruits. Fruitlike structures may develop directly from the seed itself rather th ...

s (nuts) found in a cave, and casts of root bosses. Partly to avoid giving credence to the common but speculative assumption that the palms were ''Jubaea chilensis'' and used as rollers to move the

moai Moai or moʻai ( ; ; ) are monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in eastern Polynesia between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but h ...

statues of Easter Island, John Dransfield assigned the species to a new genus. The assignment is not accepted by the

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families The World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (usually abbreviated to WCSP) was an "international collaborative programme that provides the latest peer reviewed and published opinions on the accepted scientific names and synonyms of selected p ...

, which does not list the genus ''Paschalococos'', nor by

The Plant List The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden and launched in 2010. It was intended to be a comprehensive record of all known names of plant specie ...

which regards the name as "unresolved".

Usage and extinction

The over-harvesting of wood, as well as the rats brought by human settlers, led to the

extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

of the Rapa Nui palm between 1250 and 1500. Hogan believes loss of the Rapa Nui palm along with other biota contributed to the collapse of society on Easter Island.C. Michael Hogan. 2008 Dransfield suggests that the trees became extinct as they were cut down for the edible palm hearts as food supplies ran out due to overpopulation. It is also likely that many palms were cut down to build canoes for fishing. Another possibility is the

Polynesian rat The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), or , is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. Contrary to its vernacular name, the Polynesian rat originated in Southeast Asi ...

, brought in by settlers arriving between AD 800 and 1000, consumed the nuts of the palm, leaving insufficient numbers to reseed the island.
LA Times, Easter Island has stone heads, but little else. What happened?, 20 June 2012. Despite the extinction of the tree, this palm appears to have been represented two hundred years later in the Rongorongo script of Easter Island with the glyph Rongorongo 067

Taxonomy

Usage and extinction

References

Further reading