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Botanists are marveling at the discovery of a towering medallion tree diagram on Madagascar that fundamentally flowers itself to death . The palm has a huge luggage compartment that reaches a whopping 59 feet ( 18 meters ) in height and is exceed by fan leaves 16 feet ( 5 metre ) in diameter . The tree diagram is the most massive palm ever obtain on the richly divers island and one of the largest known flowering plants — the trees can even be spot on Google Earth . hundred of tiny flowers that bristle from the treetop are pollinated by insects and snort and grow into yield . As soon as the tree diagram fruits , its nutrient reserves are use up and the entire tree topples and dies . The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was discovered lately by a French grove owner on a walk with his fellowship , who pack pictures that became circulate to amazed botanist at Kew Gardens in London . The experts had never consider anything like it . DNA analysis of the palm indicate that they were not only a new species , but a new genus of palm . Only three other genera are known in the next closest - interrelate mathematical group of palms , which are scattered across Arabia , Thailand andChina . This evolutionary filiation has never before been seen in Madagascar " It is very difficult with current knowledge to excuse how it could ever have reached Madagascar , " said Kew research fellow John Dransfield . Dransfield and his co-worker , whose subject of the palm is detailed in the Jan. 17 number of the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society , approximate that there are fewer than 100 of the fresh distinguish palms on the island . Like many other plants and creature on Madagascar , the plants are under threat — only 18 percent of the island ’s aboriginal flora stay entire .
Newly discovered palm tree in Madagascar. The tree, discovered by a strolling Frenchman and his family, is not only a new species, but a new genus.
