Discovered: The self-destructing palm tree that flowers once every 100 years

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The tree, which grows to 66 feet in height and has 16 feet wide leaves, is only found in an extremely remote region in the north west of the island, four days by road from the capital.

Local villagers have known about it for years although none had seen it in flower until last year.

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Explode: The Madagascan palm flowers like Christmas tree every 100 years, then dies

The bizarre flowering ritual was first spotted by Frenchman Xavier Metz, who runs a cashew plantation nearby.

After seeing it he notified Kew Gardens in London.

The name of the tree and its remarkable life cycle will be revealed today in a study in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society published.

Kew botanist Mijoro Rakotoarinivo: "It's spectacular. It does not flower for maybe 100 years and when it's like this it can be mistaken for other types of palm.

"But then a large shoot, a bit like an asparagus, grows out of the top of the tree and starts to spread.

"You get something that looks a bit like a Christmas tree growing out of the top of the palm."

There are thought to be only be 100 of the trees that are believed to be about 80 million years old.

Meanwhile, deforestation of the Amazon has surged in recent months and is likely to rise in 2008 for the first time in four years, a senior Brazilian government body revealed.

Brazil's National Institute for Space claimed 2,300 square miles of forest had been lost in the past four months.

That compares with an estimated 3,700 square miles in the 12 months ended July 31, which officials hailed as the lowest deforestation rate since the 1970s.

The rise raises questions over Brazil really are protecting the world's biggest rain forest, whose destruction is a major source of carbon emissions that drive global warming.