The Amborella

More than 280 million years ago, after lengthy sedimentation and intense volcanic underwater activity, New Caledonia emerged close to the Gondwana, which later became Australia. New Caledonia was completely isolated for almost 300 million years. This explains why the nature preserved fossilized species. It is rich in a native vegetation of about 2,500 endemic plants, which are unique in the world, making it the first « jardin botanique » - i.e. "botanical garden" of Southern Pacific, followed by New Zealand.

The remarkable illustration of this outstanding particularity is the flowering plant "Amborella Trichopoda”, the only species of the Amborellacées family, which exists only here. It is considered frequently as the most archaic flowering plant on earth. This species was the first to be differentiated during the evolution of flowering plants, which began there about 135 million years ago in the Cretaceous era.

Small size shrub, reaching between two and six meters, Amborella Trichopoda is a plant almost common in New Caledonia that grows in the rainforest in a schistose soil between 200 and 1000 meters. They are odourless male and female flowers, creamy white, arranged in clusters of 2-30 flowers in the leaves’ axils or on bare stems. Flowering period is from March to May after which they bare fruits until the end of the year. It is widespread throughout the central part of the Grande Terre (Mainland) and grows mainly on the slopes of the Dogny Plateau (Sarraméa) and the Col des Roussettes (Bourail).