Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The rare flowering of Talipot palms remains visible in Rio de Janeiro in December as several decades-old trees bloom simultaneously for the first and only time at the Aterro do Flamengo and the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden before beginning their final life cycle.
Talipot palms, native to southern India and Sri Lanka, are among the largest palm species in the world. Some specimens grow more than 98 feet high.
Their defining trait is that they flower only once. That event marks the end of their reproductive cycle.
The species reaches maturity between 50 and 70 years. The full flowering process, from the opening of the first flowers to the maturation of the fruit, lasts between 12 and 18 months, a pattern typical of monocarpic plants.
Once the fruit falls, the palms begin an irreversible process of decline that ends in their natural death.
