The Talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) is one of the most extraordinary plants. It is a native of Asia (particularly Sri Lanka) and can grow up to 100ft, although in Guyana they don’t get as high as this. They produce the largest inflorescence in the plant kingdom (up to 25 ft tall which is estimated to be 20 per cent of its total mass) bearing some ten million or more flowers, and a crop of up to a quarter of a million seeds some fifteen months later. This is the sole purpose of its long life, and what makes it so extraordinary. All its energy is devoted to this single explosion of flower and seed and there is nothing left afterwards except death. Once the Talipot flowers and seeds that is the end of it.

The Talipot palm is an introduced plant, and no doubt in another sixty or seventy years a few of the mass of seeds now being produced will have germinated and grown to maturity. It is a generous plant in its native habitat – a source of many benefits during its life to…..