New plants discovered

When we started with Zazamalala in 2000, many different plants from different parts of the world were planted. Due to the harsh environment, at that moment unknown to us, most of them perished. After 2002, almost exclusively, endemic Malagasy trees were added, but some exotics survived. Nowadays, when walking through the forest, sometimes there are surprises! Determination can be difficult, since the origine of the species is unknown. And there are certainly also many Malagasy plants and trees that came via natural spreading of seeds to Zazamalala. Last month, when walking through a remote Zazamalala corner, we stood in front of a very spiny palm, something we never saw before. Scrutinizing the literature resulted in the correct name: a Ruffle palm (Aiphanes aculeata) from Central and South America. There is probably only one palm of this kind at Zazamalala and we wonder whether it will ever bear fertile fruits.

Another discovery was the False rattan liana or Flagellaria indica. This liana climbs large trees in many parts of Africa, Madagascar and South-East Asia. Its bamboo-like stems produce grass-like leaves with an extended coiling tip, used as a tendril for climbing trees.

In fact, there are more than a 100 different vines and lianas in the Zazamalala forest and we just began with determination. So far, we found 3 other new climbing beauties: Ipomoea mojangensis, an endemic Morning glory with pink to mauve flowers; Rapona tiliifolia, an endemic liana with white and yellow flowers; Dalechampia subternata, the endemic Butterfly vine with flowers lacking petals and with the male flowers on top of the female flowers in a cyme.

And then we could determine a small orchid, growing high in a Tamarind tree: Acampe pachyglossa.