A Forest Department team trekked Varaiattumalai in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) recently for a rare task – to confirm the identity of an arecanut palm that grows on the slopes of peaks. The team spotted over 150 palms of Bentinckia condapanna Berry & Roxb, which grow on steep rocky slopes and is endemic to southern part of Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
“We identified six patches of the palm, comprising more than 150 individuals in their full grown state occupying a linear strip of nearly two km. Plants such as Calamus pseudotenuis, Impatiens elegans, Impatiens campanulata and Henckelia incana were found growing side by side along the rocky habitat. Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve is another place in Tamil Nadu where the palm is found in its natural environment,” said ATR Field Director S. Ramasubramanian who led the team.
As per the last assessment done for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 1998, Bentinckia condapanna is classified as ‘vulnerable’. The palm is known as Vareikamugu and Varukamuvu in Tamil as they grow in slope (varei – cliff).
A.S. Marimuthu, who served as the Deputy Director of ATR, had sighted the palms once on a cliff from a long distance. The new team from ATR trekked Varaiattumalai along with botanist B. Subbaiyan to confirm the identity.
Mr. Subbaiyan said the palm was named after Lord William Henry Cavendish Bentick who served as the Governor General of India from 1828 to 1835. Condapanna derived from ‘conda’, local usage for a casual hair style that matches with the inflorescence of the palm, and ‘pana’, colloquial name for palm. It was also called Lord Bentinck’s Palm, he said.
According to him, the genus Bentinckia belongs to the family Arecaceae which has two species -- Bentinckia condapanna and Bentinckia nicobarica, both enlisted as threatened species by the Botanical Survey of India. “Elephants eat the leaves of the palm while several birds feed on the fruit,” he added.
