Wodyetia bifurcata  Growing in a remote area of northeastern Australia, Wodyetia bifurcata was unknown to professional botanists until an Aboriginal man named Wodyeti shared his knowledge of its existence in 1978. In the years that followed, the enormous demand of palm enthusiasts eager to purchase specimens of this newly-described monotypic genus fueled illegal collection of wild plants and seeds and nearly decimated populations of Wodyetia bifurcata. Legal propagation and sale of Wodyetia bifurcata by commercial nurseries eventually cooled demand for wild-collected plants. Though wild populations are still considered vulnerable, Wodyetia bifurcata is now one of the world’s most popular landscape palms. |
