Palm House

AFRICA: South Wing

This vast continent has very few palm species, but one - the African oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) - is the most important oil-producing plantation palm in the tropics.

Coffee bushes (Coffea), which often produce berries in the Palm House; and the Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) from which anti-leukaemia drugs were developed, are valuable plants which originated in Africa and Madagascar.

Madagascar and other islands off Africa are richer in palms and Kew is proud of its rare triangle palm (Dypsis decaryi) and the double coconut palm (Lodoicea maldivica) from the Seychelles, which bears a bizarre seed, the largest in the world.

South Africa is rich in cycads - the 'living fossils' of the plant world - and one of Kew's specimens, Encephalartos altensteinii, is one of the world's oldest pot-plants, having been brought here in 1775. Nearby are the male and female plants of Encephalartos ferox, which bear spectacular red cones in midsummer.

Continue the tour

Back up to: Palm House Zone

Carry on to: The Americas