Seemann's Balaka Palm Balaka Seemannii

Semann's Balaka Palm was first collected on Vanua Levu by the United States Exploring Expedition in 1840 but was not named until 1861 based on material collected on Taveuni in the same year by Fiji's pioneering botanist, Berthold Seemann.

Berthold Seemann, a German national working out of the Royal Botanic Gardens at kew in England, accompanied a British Government Mission to investigate a purported Deed of Cession. He arrived in Lakeba on 11th May 1860 and thereafter traveled very widely around the country. His instructions as botanist were" …to prepare a report on the native and cultivated vegetable products of the Fiji's, and the apparent capabilities of the islands…to produce cotton, sugar, spices, indigo and other tropical plants." In addition he was to"…make as complete a collection as possible of all the plants of the islands and all vegetable products…"

Seemann spent less than two years in the islands but by the time he returned to England he had assemble enough material to work up a 'Flora Vitiensis' which remained the standard text on Fiji's plant for over a century, until the publication of A.C. Smith's Flora Vitensis Nova 1979.

Today the palm named after him, remains one of the commonest of Fiji's endemic palms but it is restricted to Taveuni and Vanua Levu where it is found in the understorey of some of Fiji's wettest forest with around 7,000 millimeters rainfall. Fijian knows the plan well and it is almost universally called Balaka (pronounced mbalaka). It is a small palm up to 8 meters high although usually noticed at 2 - 4 meters. The truck is slender and bears prominent rings from the former leaf scars, it is invariably straight as it grows I in the sub-canopy. Like most plams, the truck is hard , this together with its straightness enabled it to be a favoured candidate for spears in Fiji's warfaring days. Today is occasional use is for walking sticks. The very young Balaka seemannii palm is easily recognized with its entire leave and as it grows characteristic leaves with distinctive wide leaflets are formed, and these are held horizontally rather than drooping like many plants. The fruit are produced in characteristic clusters of up to several hundred and they become bright red on maturity. The nut or kernel is reported to be eaten in some localities, and so too may be eaten the young 'palm heart'. Medicinal uses are also recorded for Balaka with the bark being used to treat headaches and the pericarp od the fruit used to treat venereal disease.

Balaka is a genus of palm restricted to Fiji, where six endemic species are recongnised and to Samoa where there are four. All are relatively small essentially understorey palms.

Fiji has remarkable palm flora with 32 species currently recognized, of which 27 are endemic. In fact over 3% of the world's palm richness is in Fiji - a compelling reason indeed for the careful conservation of Fiji's palm and the forests in which they are found. However, many are threatened by the continuing loss of forest to agricultural land and through wildfire, and elsewhere its conservation to mahogany plantations. Thirteen are regarded as 'threatened', four of these being 'critically endangered'; not enough is known about 'six species to categories their conservation status, thus only eight or (or 30%) are regarded as of 'lower' or not of' conservation concern'. Fortunately Seemann's Balaka Palm is one of these.