''Saribus jeanneneyi'' is a very rare

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

palm tree The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially c ...

in the genus ''

Saribus ''Saribus'' is a genus of palms (family Arecaceae), native to Southeast Asia, Papuasia and Pacific Islands. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate fan of numerous leaflets. ''Livistona'' is ...

''. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to southern

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, where only one mature specimen, surrounded by a few seedlings, survived in its native

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

as of 1997. The cause of its rarity in the wild is because its

meristem In cell biology, the meristem is a structure composed of specialized tissue found in plants, consisting of stem cells, known as meristematic cells, which are undifferentiated cells capable of continuous cellular division. These meristematic c ...

is edible.

Taxonomy

In 1910 ''Saribus jeanneneyi'' was first described as a new species by the Italian palm specialist

Odoardo Beccari Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. Life Youth and education (18 ...

. He placed it in the genus '' Pritchardiopsis'', but

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

studies based on

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

led to its transfer into ''Saribus'' in 2011. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

commemorates Ambroise Jeanneney, an

agronomist An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.) is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the Uni ...

in New Caledonia, who collected the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen in Prony District. The holotype is housed at the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant biological specimen, specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sh ...

at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

Description

The fruit are some 4cm in diameter. Compared to other species of ''Saribus'', ''S. jeanneneyi'' has relatively large fruit, although it shares this characteristic with ''S. surru'' and ''S. tothur''. Its fruit are reported to be purplish when ripe, but near-ripe fruit have been photographed with a yellow-orange colour. The seeds are surrounded by a keeled, woody

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. papuanus'' likewise has a thickened endocarp.

Distribution

Compared to the other palms in the genus ''Saribus'', ''S. jeanneneyi'' has an outlying distribution far to the east of the other species. It is

to southern

Ecology

It grows on a steep slope on

serpentine soil Serpentine soil is an uncommon soil type produced by weathered ultramafic rock such as peridotite and its metamorphic derivatives such as serpentinite. More precisely, serpentine soil contains minerals of the serpentine subgroup, especially an ...

s at 200 metres elevation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1103646 Livistoninae Endemic flora of New Caledonia Critically endangered plants Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari Taxonomy articles created by Polbot