Race to Save a Species: Kew’s Search for the Last Endangered Palm

Kew Gardens has begun a remarkable effort to secure the future of the Kew Gardens endangered palm, a tree so rare that for years it was feared to exist only within the glass walls of the Palm House. With the Victorian landmark due for major renovation in 2027, botanists realised that the towering Ravenea moorei, a 46ft specimen and the world’s only known cultivated example, could not be moved without risking its life.

The Palm House, which opened in 1848, requires extensive restoration. Yet the endangered palm has stood at its heart for more than six decades, too tall and too fragile to be relocated. “We simply didn’t know if Ravenea moorei still survived in the wild,” said Professor Bill Baker, Kew’s leading palm specialist. “It was entirely possible that the last living example existed only at Kew, and we were going to drive a whole species to extinction.”

In an attempt to avert that fate, three Kew botanists, Baker, Tom Pickering and Will Spoelstra, travelled almost 5,000 miles to the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean. Their destination was the remote volcanic landscape of Mount Karthala, the only place where the species had ever been recorded. The question was not just whether Ravenea moorei still existed, but whether they could bring it back to Richmond alive.

The expedition, filmed for a documentary now available on Kew’s YouTube channel, took the team into dense, degraded forest within Karthala National Park. Working alongside Comorian scientists from the national Herbarium and local guides, the botanists trekked for hours in intense humidity. “The forest was almost consumed by invasive plants,” Baker said. “We couldn’t have done it and wouldn’t have done it without our partners in the field.”

Their persistence paid off. Hidden among the overgrowth, they found around 50 Ravenea moorei palms, just a dozen of them mature. “To find it clinging to survival was both extraordinary and sobering,” Baker said. Although heartened to know the species still grows in the wild, the team reported that the surrounding forest was in “a sad state” and that the palms remain critically endangered.

Despite finding few seeds, the botanists were able to collect several young plants, along with specimens of three other endemic palm species. These now grow safely at Kew and will form part of a new display when the Palm House reopens in 2032. The renovation itself is expected to cost £60 million, with £40 million still to be raised through public and philanthropic support. Details of the project can be found through the official planning overview.

The existing Ravenea moorei at Kew originated from a seed collected in 1963 by the botanist Professor Harold E. Moore, who first identified the species on the flanks of Mount Karthala. Although the current specimen is unlikely to survive the renovation, Baker said Kew will preserve its genetic material “in perpetuity” and hopes to sequence its genome.

For Richmond residents, the story offers a striking reminder of the global conservation work taking place just a short walk from Kew Bridge. “If we fail to act now, this unique palm could disappear from the planet within our lifetime,” Baker said. The botanists are now calling for renewed investment in the Comoros to prevent the species from vanishing altogether.

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