Bismarckia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family endemic to western and northern
Madagascar where they grow in open grassland. The genus is named for the first chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck and the epithet for its only species,
Bismarckia nobilis, comes from Latin for 'noble'.
Botany: solitary trunks, gray to tan, with ringed indentations from old leaf bases, ± 40 cm wide, to 25 m high; leaves rounded, enormous, over 3 m wide, divided into 20 or more stiff, once-folded segments, split on the ends, induplicate, costapalmate, with a wedge-shaped hastula, petioles 2–3 m, slightly armed, covered in a white wax, cinnamon-colored caducous scales; leaf crown nearly-spherical, 7.5 m wide and 6 m tall; dioecious; inflorescences pendent, interfoliar;flowers small brown mature to a brown ovoid drupe, containing a single seed.