Trees & Plants

Elephant’s palm

Moahi

Caryota urens L.

Occasional in homesteads. The tender leaves are sweet and cooling, and useful in digestive and to metabolic problems (pitta in Ayurvedic medicine). The pulp of the fruit is good for at hyperdipsia and fatigue. A paste made from the nut is good for hemicrania. Toddy is extracted f

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uses: The tender leaves are sweet and cooling, and useful in digestive and to metabolic problems (pitta in Ayurvedic medicine). The pulp of the fruit is good for at hyperdipsia and fatigue. A paste made from the nut is good for hemicrania. Toddy is extracted from the inflorescence.
family: Arecaceae
synonym: Corypha guineensis L.
description: Monoecious, stout, palms, 16- 20 m tall, 30-50 cm diam., trunk smooth with prominent annular leaf-scars. Leaves bipinnate, 4-6 m long; pinnae 5-7 pairs, to 1.5 m long; leaflets broadly cuneate, fan- shaped, 12-20 cm long, 7-10 cm wide at wider portion, raemorse at apex, many ribbed. Spadix interfoliar, shortly peduncled, much branched, pendulous, to 4 m long; spathes few, 40-50 cm long. Flowers many, in triads with female flower in the middle. Sepals 3, rounded, imbricate. Petals linear-oblong, valvate. Stamens many. Ovary 3-celled, 3-gonous; ovule 1-per locule. Fruit ca. 2 cm across, globose, reddish purple; seeds plano- convex, subreniform.
native range: India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka
distribution: As exotic in Papua New Guinea, Th ailand and Vietnam
english names: Elephant’s palm · Fish- tail palm · Indian sago palm · Jaggery palm · Toddy palm
flowering fruiting: January – April
occurrence maldives: Occasional in homesteads.