Imagine a palm tree so huge that it can be seen in Google Earth. No, not that show-off artificial one in Dubai. This is a real palm, recently discovered in an obscure part of Madagascar.

A paper published today in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, including research from the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, describes the newfound species. In fact, it is a newfound genus and has a weird habit of self destructing.

“The nutrient reserves of the palm become completely depleted as soon as it fruits and the entire tree collapses in a macabre demise,” mourns the press release.

The palm is of staggering dimensions for something that has eluded attention all this time. It grows 18 metres tall and has leaves of up to five metres.

92 specimens of the tree, named Tahina spectabilis, are known. It’s closest cousins live some 6,000 km away in Asia, puzzling botanists further. But unusual flora and fauna are the rule rather than the exception on Madagascar. 90% of the island’s species occur nowhere else on Earth.

Image from AP