Licuala khoonmengii

Description

This dwarf Licuala from rainforests in Terengganu on the Malay peninsula, is surely among the most breathtakingly beautiful in the genus, and easily comparable to such species as L. mattanensis or L. cordata. Its leaves are divided into 5 or 7 segments, with a large one in the middle and consecutively more narrow ones towards the base. They have an almost blue-gray metallic color -- just wonderful in the dim understory of the tropical forest but hard to capture on film with a flash. Described as recently as 1997 it seems to be practically unknown in cultivation.�