Product Description
Habitat and Distribution
Burretiokentia koghiensis is found in rainforests below the foot hills, of the mountains, in New Caledonia.New Caledonia. Burretiokentia koghiensis is only known from the southeast and southwest slopes of Mont Bouo in the Mont Koghi massif above Noumea at 500-600 m elevation. Burretiokentia koghiensis is restricted to a narrow band of serpentine rocks located between the schistose base and peridotitic cover of Mont Bouo. It occurs in the rain forest understory or canopy in very rocky habitats on brown hypermagnesian, neutral soils of serpentine origin. (J-C. Pintaud and D. Hodel. 1998)/Palmweb.
Description
Height: 8-15 m. high, has a fresh green trunk, covered with prominent leaf scars spaced internodes, as B.vieillardii. Trunk type: Solitary, crownshaft, Flower: Emerges from below crownshaft. Leaf detail: Broad, erect, diameterically opposed pinnae. Spread: 3 to 4 meters. Leaves 10 to 12 spreading in the crown, 1.5 to 2.5 m. long, with a short petiole and rectangular, rounded below and gutter above, grayish tomentose éparsement; leaf sheath from 30 to 60 cm. more or less tubular at the base , flared at the top, lightly covered with a whitish tomentum first then greyish. Phenology (flower): Inflorescences 1-3, short, first erected and then horizontal, slightly branched, very woolly, and whitish.
Burretiokentia koghiensis is readily distinguished from B. vieillardii particularly by the open, white-tomentose leaf sheaths, the numerous, erect leaves expanding red and with many, closely inserted pinnae, the contracted, drooping inflorescences with a short rachis and first order branches, and the small fruits which change from white to purple at maturity. (J-C. Pintaud and D. Hodel. 1998)/Palmweb.
Culture
Requirements: Full sun, when mature, consistently moist soil. Very rare in cultivation. Flowering of Burretiokentia koghiensis is very seasonal. Anthesis occurs August-October and fruits mature in December-January.
