Product Code Database
Pigafetta is a genus of two palm species in the family Arecaceae.
They are native to the Maluku Islands, Sulawesi, and New Guinea Plants of the World Online: Pigafetta (Blume) Becc. (retrieved 30 March 2020) where they grow near and in forest clearings up to 900 m in elevation. It is named after Antonio Pigafetta and is sometimes misspelled as Pigafettia. Thought to contain only one species, in 1994 it was found to have two; Pigafetta elata and P. filaris, both of which are among the fastest growing palms. Pigafetta elata, planted in Tahiti by palm expert Donald R. Hodel in 1981, had by 1990, grown to height. Another P. elata, seen growing at the Sibolangit Botanic Garden in Sumatra by botanical explorer David G. Fairchild was tall, but was only 6.5 years old, including photo with people for size comparison averaging per year.
Description
These dioecious palms have green, solitary trunks with widely spaced leaf scar rings. The trunks grow to 45 cm in diameter and 35 m in height; the leaf crown is hemispherical, or nearly so, with 6 m pinnate leaves on robust, 2 m petioles. Petioles are armed with 6 cm spines, gold or gray in color. Inflorescences emerge from within the leaf crown, to 2 m in length, and resemble those in Mauritia. The fruit ripens to a yellow-orange drupe, covered in scales and containing one seed.
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