Editing Livistona mariae (section)

===Introduction:===
Palm Valley, situated in the Finke Gorge
National Park in the MacDonnell Range system, Northern
Territory is of considerable interest to tourists and
scientists alike largely because of the presence of a stand
of the relict cabbage palm ''Livistona mariae''
F. Muell. This species of ''Livistona''
is
restricted to an area of about 60km squared on the Finke
River and its tributaries. It is a relict species seperated
by about 1000 km from the nearest ''Livistona''
to the
north. The closest relative to ''L. mariae''
occurs on the
Fortescue River in the Hamersley Ranges, W. Aust., a
stand in many ways similar to that at Palm Valley. The relict
nature of the palms is discussed by Keast (1959), Burbidge
(1960) and Chippendale (1963).
 
Although the explorer Ernest Giles was the first to
discover the palms in the Finke Gorge in 1872, he almost
certainly bypassed Palm Valley itself, and its discovery is
attributed to a Lutheran missionary from Hermannsburg Mission
some time later. The valley was investigated by members of
the Horn expedition during 1894 (Tate 1896). After a visit to
the valley, Lothian (1959) discussed aspects of the palm's
reproductive behaviour.
Chippendale (1959) listed 200 plants found to occur in
Palm Valley. Since this time a total of 333 plant species
have been recorded from the valley (about a quarter of the
total number of species recorded for the whole of central
Australia!). About 10% of these species can be considered to
be of rare or restricted distribution in central Australia.
The majority of these rarer species are restricted to areas
in the valley fed by permanent water seepage.
Recently a large gas field has been discovered in the
area adjacent to and north of the park Two gas bearing wells
are situated only a few kilometres north of Palm Valley and
tapping of these wells for commercial production is being
considered.