Unlike its cousin the arecanut palm, the hill areca Bentinckia condapanna is a rare sight. Now, researchers have spotted a population of the threatened wild palms in an abandoned tea plantation in Kollam district.
According to a recent study in the Journal of Threatened Taxa which publishes scientific articles to promote conservation, M. Divin Murukesh of Malappuram’s MES Mampad College and his colleague Ajith Ashokan discovered 76 adult palms and 66 seedlings of the hill areca near a road on the Arundel-Priya estate near Thenmala.
Although the palm is reported to grow in high elevations (between 1,000 and 2,000 metres above mean sea level) in the Western Ghats, the new population has been reported from a lower altitude of around 600 metres.
The team also noticed birds (including the Malabar grey hornbill and Malabar barbet) and mammals (bats and bonnet macaques) feeding on the bright red fruits of the palm.
