Latanier chapeau

The two major threats to this species are loss of suitable habitat and over-collecting for horticulture trade. Across its range, areas where this species occurs are being converted or marked for development for housing and tourism areas. Regarding the horticultural trade, on the island of Anegada and on Puerto Rico individuals have been removed from wild population (Heller et al. 2015). This threat is also reported occurring in Dominican Republic (Garcia et al. 2016). The actual levels of exploitation across its range are unknown but are reported to contribute to the rarity of the species (Heller et al. 2015).

This species is found in some protected areas within its natural range. In Puerto Rico, it occurs in Mona Island Nature Reserve, Guánica State Forest and within the boundaries of the Vieques National Wildlife Refuge. On the British Virgin Islands, it has been recorded from Shark Bay National Park on Tortola. Based on herbarium collections, it is inferred that the species occurs in the limits of Parque Nacional Sierra de Baoruco on the Dominican Republic and in the Pic de Macaya National Park in Haiti. There are ex situ collections held at the J.R. O'Neal Botanic Gardens on Tortola, British Virgin Islands (M.R. Corcoran pers. comm. 2017), and Kew's Millennium Seed Bank in the UK. These collections derived from Anegada and Puerto Rico source material (T.M. Heller pers. comm 2017). Conservation action is needed to secure ex situ material from across the species range to capture all its genetic diversity. The horticultural exploitation levels need urgent assessment throughout its range to gather evidence on the full impact of this threat.