Pelagodoxa

Pelagodoxa
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 2.3)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Arecales
Family:	Arecaceae
Subfamily:	Arecoideae
Tribe:	Pelagodoxeae
Genus:	Pelagodoxa Becc.
Species:	P. henryana
Binomial name
Pelagodoxa henryana Becc.

Pelagodoxa is a genus of palms native to the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia & Vanuatu. It contains 2 known species, P. henryana & P. mesocarpa. Both palms are quite rare in both their native habitat and in cultivation.

Both Palms are very similar in appearance to each other with one of the differences being the colour of the petiole of P. mesocarpa being orange whereas P. henryana is green. The other notable difference being P. henryana fruit is larger than P. mesocarpa and being odourless with light green flesh, with the latter having orange flesh and a strong fragrant smell.

Both fruit look the same externally with light brown exocarps cracked into low, pyramidal corky warts.

History

P. henryana had been described in 1916 by Charles Henry, a French agriculturalist while P. mesocarpa was first discovered in 1928 by Burret, recognising it as a seperate species. It was still thought of a synonym of the former until a detailed article by Don Hodel et al. In palms Vol.63 2019 reinstated P. mesocarpa as a valid species.