Summary ⁵

Raphia australis, the giant palm or rafia, is a species of raffia palm in the Arecaceae family. It is found around Kosi Bay in Mozambique and South Africa.
It was imported from Kosi Bay and planted in the swamp forests of Mtunzini - where it is thriving. It tends to displace local swamp forest species.
Its fruit has an oily orange-coloured layer which is eaten by palm-nut vultures.
It grows for about 15 to 50 years before flowering. It is monocarpic - flowering once and then dying. Each flowering event takes several years and produces thousands of seeds.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Ricky Taylor, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Ricky Taylor
2. (c) Peter Vos, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Peter Vos
3. (c) Ton Rulkens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/47108884@N07/14864268202/
4. (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), uploaded by Tony Rebelo
5. Adapted by Ricky Taylor from a work by (c) Wikipedia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphia_australis

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• African Plants - a photo guide
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• eFloras.org
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• World Flora Online

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