Borassus sambiranensis is a species of fan palm

Fan palm

Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of palms in various genera with leaves that are palmately compound...

 in the Arecaceae

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 family commonly known as Sambirano Palmyra Palm. It is found wild only in Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

, in the Sambirano area where only a few mature individuals survive. It is threatened by habitat loss, often in the form of bush fires.

B. sambiranensis grows a smooth, solitary, light gray trunk to 18 m (60 ft) tall, with a characteristic bulge in the middle, topped by a full, rounded crown of very large, fan-shaped leaves. Seeds are about the size of coconut

Coconut

The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...

s and produce a very large sinker when they germinate

Germination

Germination is the process in which a plant or fungus emerges from a seed or spore, respectively, and begins growth. The most common example of germination is the sprouting of a seedling from a seed of an angiosperm or gymnosperm. However the growth of a sporeling from a spore, for example the...

.