Fan Palms are in the Arecaceae (palm) family. There are two subspecies: Licuala ramsayi var. ramsayi and Licuala ramsayi var. tuckeri, which is found further north, including on the Torrres Strait Islands.
The Fan Palm can reach 20m tall. It has a single trunk, which is quite slender (around 20cm in diameter). But the species is most famous for its leaves.
Each plant has 9 to 12 huge, segmented, pleated and almost circular leaves; they resemble a giant pinwheel or fan, hence their common name.
The leaflets are bright green on top and silvery underneath. There are spines along the leaf stem, which grows to 2m long.
A fibrous mesh hangs from the leaf sheath, and gives the species its other common name: the Hessian Hair Fan Palm.
The Fan Palm was an important plant for Aboriginal groups of north Queensland, providing thatching and shelter from rain, wrapping for food and other uses.
The Fan Palm is endemic to (only found in) Queensland. It occurs in the north east of the state, in the Wet Tropics area: from Cooktown, south to Ingham.
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Fan Palms are typically found within 20km of the coast and from sea level to 1,100m. They form a key part of the sub-canopy in rainforests, mangroves, littoral forests, vine forests and in riverine habitats.1
Fan Palms are associated with several different soil types and thrive in shady, humid spots. They tolerate the cold, though they’re not considered frost hardy. They’re also sensitive to drought and dry air. Nonetheless, the Fan Palm’s conservation status is considered of Least Concern under Queensland’s Nature Conservation Act 1992.2
Fan Palm forests provide habitat for rare and threatened flora and fauna, including the Southern Cassowary, the Pied Imperial Pigeon and Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo.
They also support vulnerable plants such as the Layered Tassel Fern and the Freycinetia Percostata3 and provide outstanding wetland habitat, as they’re often seasonally inundated.
The Australian Fan Palm generally flowers between November and January, and fruits between January and March. The long flower clusters form a ‘skirt’ that dangles from the canopy. Once pollinated by insects, the small white flowers develop into orange to red fruits.
The fruits drop to the rainforest floor, and this is where the cassowary enters the story. Southern Cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius johnsonii) eat fruits, like that of the Fan Palm, that are too large to be eaten by other species. By dispersing seeds they’re essential in the longevity of Fan Palm populations.
The wet season is a time of food scarcity for cassowaries because not many plants fruit at that time. Fan Palms however do fruit throughout the wet season so they’re a particularly important food source for cassowaries.
Australian Fan Palms have low seedling numbers, typically only 50 to 500 per hectare.4 Even in good conditions it’s known to be a slow-growing plant.
The biggest threat to remnant Fan Palm forests is large-scale clearing.
Large areas of north Queensland’s coastal rainforest have been cleared, and wetlands drained, to make way for agricultural and housing developments.
This also means that edge effects in fragmented remnants is a serious management challenge. Feral pigs also pose a problem: they plough up the ground underneath Fan Palms, disturbing the forest floor and damaging seedlings.
Finally, weed invasion threatens to outcompete native plants such as the Fan Palm, in particular weed species such as Pond Apple (Annona glabra) and Harungana (Harungana madagascariensis).
We love Fan Palms so much that we’ve named a reserve after them! Fan Palm Reserve is a special remnant patch of lowland rainforest, located 50km north of Port Douglas. It’s within Queensland’s Wet Tropic World Heritage Area – a national biodiversity hotspot. And it’s dominated by Fan Palms!
Bush Heritage bought the 8.2 ha property in 1993, just as it was threatened with development. We recognise the Kuku Yalangi Bama as the Traditonal Owners of Fan Palm Reserve and pay our respects to Kuku Yalangi elders past and present.
Donate today to help us continue this and other vital conservation work.
BLOG 03/01/2018
Trail cameras were recently put out for the first time at Fan Palm Reserve in the Daintree area of far north Queensland. These cameras are a popular and effective monitoring tool because they are non-intrusive and fairly low effort way to survey fauna species.
Read MoreBLOG 23/10/2017
Do you know what you're looking at here? It's the splatter-bomb poo of a Southern Cassowary and it's everywhere on the forest floor at Fan Palm Reserve in the Daintree area of far north Queensland.
Read MoreBUSHTRACKS 21/12/2015
We are hosting a new research project into how far south in Queensland’s Daintree River lowland forests the near threatened Bennett’s Tree Kangaroo may exist. After a sighting of a juvenile close to Palm Road in the Daintree, tree roo expert and author Roger Martin visited our Fan Palm Reserve in northern Queensland to investigate the southern range of this iconic Australian marsupial.
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