Palm Valley (Northern Territory)

Mary's Palms in the Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National Park

Palm Valley is a valley in the MacDonnell Ranges west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia .

The last population of the Marienpalme ( Livistona mariae ) is in the valley in the Finke Gorge National Park , which can only be reached by four-wheel drive vehicles over a 16-kilometer track south of Hermannsburg . The water , which is important for survival, comes from mountain ridges made of porous sandstone , which have developed into an enormous water reservoir due to erosion that has lasted for millions of years .

The palm species, which came from a more humid climatic period , has probably only survived here on the banks of Palm Creek for around 20,000 years . In March 2012, an Australian-Japanese research team described in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B the thesis that Australian natives could have transported palm seeds to the center of the continent around 15,000 years ago.

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  Water in the Palm Valley

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  Way to the palm trees

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  Valley of the Palm Trees

Web links

• Fairfax Digital - Hermannsburg

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Not an ancient relic: the endemic Livistona palms of arid central Australia could have been introduced by humans

Coordinates: 24 ° 2 ′ 52 ″  S , 132 ° 42 ′ 40 ″  E