An international team of botanists has discovered and described two new species of the African palm genus Raphia from Cameroon and Gabon.
Raphia zamiana: a habitat along the road, with team member Dr. Raoul Niangadouma for scale, in Oyem, Gabon. Image credit: Thomas L.P. Couvreur.
Raphia is the most species-rich genus of African palms with 22 species currently recognized to date.
One of the newly-discovered Raphia species, named R. zamiana, occurs in southern Cameroon (Central and South regions) and western Gabon, and is probably also common in Equatorial Guinea.
It forms large, dense colonies in swampy environments and its stem grows up to 26 feet (8 m) tall with trunk diameter of up to 1.3 feet (0.4 m). A single leaf of this large species can reach 67 feet (21 m) in length.
Locally known as ‘zam,’ Raphia zamiana is a multi-used palm, from which wine, grubs and construction material are extracted and sold.
“It is indeed incredible that such a large and useful palm has remained unknown to science until now,” said team leader Dr. Thomas Couvreur, a researcher at the University of Montpellier, France, and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands.
“This curious fact, however, underlines a bigger problem. While biodiversity is being destroyed at unprecedented rates, we still have a lot to discover and describe, even species that are common, well known and useful.”
“This comes as a surprise to many people and underlines how much remains to be discovered in the tropics. Scientifically describing species, especially useful ones, is very important, as it ‘puts then on the map,’ which allows them to be studied and managed. In this sense, field work remains a key.”
Raphia gabonica in natural habitat in Alèmbé, Gabon; notice dry land habitat, not growing in colonies, single stem with curly fibers and long pendulous inflorescences. Image credit: Thomas L.P. Couvreur.
The second new species, Raphia gabonica, is restricted to two small populations from central Gabon, where it occurs on hillsides on tierra firme soil, and close to small streams.
Its preliminary IUCN status is ‘Endangered,’ being amongst the five most threatened palm species in Africa.
“Our study shows that, despite their economic and cultural importance across tropical Africa and for Africans, we still know too little about Raphia palms,” said team member Suzanne Mogue Kamga, a Ph.D. student at the University of Yaoundé, Cameroon.
“This is very paradoxal and a gap that we need to fill, quickly.”
“We hope that our amazing discoveries continue to stimulate further botanical studies and promote conservation efforts across Cameroon, Gabon and central Africa in general,” added team member Professor Bonaventure Sonké, also from the University of Yaoundé.
The discovery is reported in the journal PhytoKeys.
_____
S.M. Kamga et al. 2018. Two new species of Raphia (Palmae/Arecaceae) from Cameroon and Gabon. PhytoKeys 111: 17-30; doi: 10.3897/phytokeys.111.27175
