Juania

Juania australis, the Chonta palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae, the only species in the genus Juania.^[2] It is a solitary trunked palm tree which is endemic to the Juan Fernández Islands archipelago in the southeast Pacific Ocean west of Chile.

Juania
Juania australis
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 2.3)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Monocots
Clade:	Commelinids
Order:	Arecales
Family:	Arecaceae
Subfamily:	Ceroxyloideae
Tribe:	Ceroxyleae
Genus:	Juania Drude
Species:	J. australis
Binomial name
Juania australis Drude ex Hook.f.

This palm is slow growing and has a green trunk; plants are either male or female. It is threatened by habitat loss. Only one mature tree grows outside its native island habitat. It is on the IUCN Red List of Vulnerable species.

Cultivation

Juania australis is extremely rare in cultivation. Seeds from the Chonta palm are banned from being exported from the Juan Fernández Islands by the Chilean government, and so are virtually impossible to get hold of. The palm is also extremely hard to grow as it has very particular requirements, preferring cool night temperatures and summer temperatures below 25 °C (77 °F). It is cold tolerant to about −5 °C (23 °F). Seed germination in laboratory conditions is reportedly slow, and can span several months.^[3]

It can grow successfully in cultivation for years and then die for no apparent reason. They have been grown successfully in San Francisco, but two specimens were lost during an unusually hot summer. There is a large 7 m (23 ft) specimen at Earlscliffe in Dublin, Ireland, growing well where the climate seems to suit this rare palm tree.

See also

• Fernandezian Region
• Juan Fernández Islands Flora

References

1. World Conservation Monitoring Centre (1998). "Juania australis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 1998: e.T38585A10127144. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.1998.RLTS.T38585A10127144.en. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
2. J. Dransfield & N. W. Uhl (1998). "Palmae". In Klaus Kubitzki (ed.). Flowering plants, Monocotyledons: Alismatanae and Commelinanae (except Gramineae). The families and genera of vascular plants. Vol. 4. Springer. p. 349. ISBN 978-3-540-64061-5.
3. Cuevas, Jaime G.; Figueroa, Javier A. (2007). "Seed germination of species of the Juan Fernández archipiélago under laboratory conditions". Gayana Botánica. 64 (1): 60–80. doi:10.4067/S0717-66432007000100007. ISSN 0717-6643.