IUCN Red List Status: Extinct in Wild (EW)
Corypha taliera Roxb., Pl. Coromandel 3: 51 1820. (Syn: Corypha careyana Becc.; Corypha martiana Becc. ex Hook.f.; Taliera bengalensis Spreng.; Taliera tali Mart. ex Blume);
India (West Bengal) as per IUCN Red List (Ew);
India (West Bengal) to Myanmar as per WCSP;
C. taliera was discovered in 1919 by William Roxburgh and he considered it to be endemic to Bengal (Roxburgh 1832, Benthall 1933, Basu 1991). The last record of this palm growing in the wild was in Birbhum district of West Bengal (India) in a village near Shantiniketan where it was in an early fruiting stage in 1979, but the seeds could not be saved as the villagers cut down the tree along with its 6m tall pyramidal inflorescence fearing it to be a “ghost palmyra tree” (Basu 1986, Basu and Chakraverty 1994). A cultivated specimen in Howrah Botanic Garden ultimately flowered, and its seeds were saved, germinated and raised to seedlings. Some of the seedlings were sent to the Fairchild Tropical Garden, Florida, USA (Basu 1991).
(From IUCN Red List (Ew)
The last single known adult Talli Palm tree of the world. I am lucky enough had seen it and taken some pictures.
Is it true that it flowers only once in lifetime and the tree dies?
I happened to see two big palm trees (Corypha taliera Roxb) with tall terminal panicle.. The trees are found near Sunguvar chatthiram, Kancheepuram dt, Tamilnadu. .