{"id":836080,"date":"2026-06-01T04:47:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836080\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T04:47:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T04:47:43","slug":"mass-flowering-of-gebang-palms-in-darwin-described-as-once-in-a-lifetime-natural-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/836080\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass flowering of Gebang palms in Darwin described as ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ natural event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost two dozen decades-old palm trees, of a species rarely spotted across Australia, are currently flowering in Darwin for the first \u2014 and only \u2014 time.<\/p>\n

Northern Territory Herbarium chief botanist Nick Cuff said the Gebang palm trees \u2014 scientific name Corypha utan \u2014 \u00a0were monocarpic, meaning “they only flower once in their life”.<\/p>\n

He said the palms were “known to do what we call synchronous flowering”.<\/p>\n

\"Taken<\/p>\n

In Australia, Gebang palm trees only grow in tropical wetlands. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

“They put all of their energy into putting out this massive inflorescence of many thousands or millions of individual flowers which will bear the fruit,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Once they’ve set their fruit and their fruit have dropped, they’ll actually die.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While Gebang palms are found throughout much of Asia, their Australian population is confined to the tropical wetlands of Arnhem Land and Cape York.<\/p>\n

\"Gebang<\/p>\n

The palms boast thousands, if not millions, of individual flowers. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

How did the palms get here?<\/p>\n

How Gebang palms came to be growing in Darwin’s public gardens depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n

Local botanical author John Brock recalls gathering samples of the plants decades ago, when he worked as a seed collector for the NT government.<\/p>\n

He said as part of the job, he was “lucky enough to get several trips to Arnhem Land”, and on one of them, he brought a piece of Arafura Swamp back to Darwin.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

After the Gebang palms drop their fruit, the trees die. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

“[In the] mid-1980s, I collected several hundred or thousands of seeds \u2014 like round golf ball nuts \u2014 and brought them back,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s likely the ones we’re seeing flowering are 30 to 40 years old, which is around the time I brought them back.”<\/p>\n

Former agricultural scientist Rob Wesley-Smith said he also had a hand in introducing the trees to Darwin.<\/p>\n

He worked with the NT government in the 1970s, when he said he noticed a group of the palms in Darwin’s botanic gardens.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Rob Wesley-Smith says he noticed one of the trees flowering shortly before Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

“One of them was huge and it was flowering just before Cyclone Tracy came, as though it knew that it should reproduce before the cyclone might have killed it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Then the cyclone came and it had blown over.”<\/p>\n

Determined to ensure a new generation of the palms would grow in Darwin, Mr Wesley-Smith said a work trip to Arnhem Land’s Arafura Swamp presented an opportunity to collect seeds.<\/p>\n

\"Tall<\/p>\n

Gebang palms growing at the Arafura Swamp in Arnhem Land. (Supplied: Nash Jefferis)<\/p>\n

“I was invited out to give some support to a cattle project \u2026 and I was determined to get some seeds when I came back,” he said.<\/p>\n

“With the plane waiting for us, I got them and brought them back to Darwin.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though how the palms ended up in Darwin may be a mystery, both nature-lovers have said they are thrilled to see them blooming.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Nick Cuff says it’s unclear why the palms are flowering at the moment. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

However, Mr Cuff said it was not entirely clear why so many were now flowering at once.<\/p>\n

“Whether it’s just a factor of them all reaching their age of maturity at this point in time, or some specific cue in the environment, [we’re not sure],” he said.<\/p>\n

A mass flowering event<\/p>\n

Mr Brock said the opportunity to see so many of the palms in flower was a rare experience.<\/p>\n

\"Gebang<\/p>\n

Gebang\u00a0palms are only found in a few parts of northern Australia. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“Darwin people should come to Lake Alexander and Vestey’s Lagoon in their own good time and see this over the next few weeks,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a one-off event, even out bush,; it might only happen every 20 or 30 years in cycles.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

City of Darwin arborist Melodee Brencher is among those who will be taking the time to soak up the rare sight.<\/p>\n

She said she had seen the palms flower before, but never at this scale.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cluster of the trees at Lake Alexander in Darwin. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n

“One or two [flower and die] every couple of years, but this time there’s like 20 of them throughout Darwin that are flowering,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s bittersweet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s really cool to see because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, but also, now they’re going to die.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Melodee Brencher says the local mass flowering event is bittersweet. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

A changing landscape and a new generation<\/p>\n

While Gebang palms are not formally recognised as a threatened species in the Northern Territory, Indigenous rangers at Arafura Swamp, in Arnhem Land, are concerned that local numbers may be declining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Cuff said that could be due to multiple factors.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Indigenous rangers are concerned the NT’s Gebang palm population is in decline. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

“Given some of the places in which they occur are very low-lying in relation to the coastline, if we did see any significant changes in sea level<\/a>, that might change the balance between salt and fresh water that they experience,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Another one would be if there’s potential [wildlife] impacts in these wetland systems that they occur in, from things like buffalo and pigs.”<\/p>\n

But Mr Brock said the palms currently flowering in Darwin showed plenty of promise, and were likely to reproduce again when they dropped their seeds.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Brock says the seeds were brought over from Arnhem Land decades ago. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

“Already you can see amongst this group, there are many healthy, young and intermediate-sized palms,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“So it’s been regenerating already.”<\/p>\n

Ms Brencher said the City of Darwin was committed to cultivating a new generation of Gebang palms.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to collect some seeds and grow some more,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re a really good palm in Darwin, they do really well and they’re quite stately in the landscape.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

City of Darwin staff are collecting seeds from the trees to ensure the next generation can thrive in Darwin. (ABC News: Pete Garnish)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Almost two dozen decades-old palm trees, of a species rarely spotted across Australia, are currently flowering in Darwin…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":836081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[342725,4740,236459,342726,342720,342716,342715,342723,342721,342713,342722,342714,342724,342718,50,87261,26922,342717,342719],"class_list":["post-836080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-arafura-swamp","tag-australia","tag-botanic-gardens","tag-corypha-utan","tag-corypha-utan-tree","tag-darwin-botanical-gardens","tag-flowering-trees","tag-g-bang-palm-tree","tag-gebang-palm-tree","tag-gebang-palms","tag-gebang-trees","tag-lake-alexander","tag-monocarpic-plant","tag-new-trees","tag-news","tag-palms","tag-plants","tag-rare-trees","tag-tree-seeds"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116673044188692755","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}