Hyophorbe lagenicaulis

Syn. Mascarena lagenicaulis

IUCN Red List Critically Endangered (CR)

Local name

Bottle Palm (English)
Champagne Bottle Palm (English)

Tree type

Evergreen Deciduous

Family: Arecaceae

Indicated uses

Medicinal Edible Ornamental Avenue Other

Flowering & fruiting

Flowering Fruiting

Key characters

Bark

Trunk grey, smooth, ringed with old leaf scars, strongly swollen near the base like a bottle and narrowing towards a smooth green crownshaft.

Leaves

Only 4–6 leaves open at a time. Leaves are pinnately compound, arching, with up to about 140 stiff, narrow leaflets about 60 cm long.

Flower

Inflorescences about 75 cm long, branched, arising below the crownshaft; flowers small, creamy, borne on horn-like buds.

Fruit / Seeds

Fruits oblong, about 2.5–3 cm long, ripening from green to orange and finally black; one seed per fruit.

Did you know?

The name lagenicaulis means “flask-shaped stem”. The genus name comes from the Greek for “pig food”, as pigs ate the fruits. Despite a popular belief, the swollen trunk does not store water. Almost extinct in the wild, it survives largely through cultivation.

Distribution

Mauritius.