Caryota urens

Common Name – Fish-tail palm

Botanical name– Caryota urens

Habit-

• Evergreen
• Large palm
• Slow growing
  
  

Habitat

• Grows naturally in moist semi evergreen and evergreen forests of India
  
  

Distribution

• Asia-Thailand, Burma, India, Sri Lanka
  
  

Specific properties

• A monocarpic species: living for several years but dying once it has flowered
• It attains full size in about 10 – 15 years, and then flowers for another 5 or more years. It flowers from the top down, and once the last fruit on the bottom inflorescence matures, the plant dies
  
  

Ecology

• Bats feed on fruits and prefer tree for roosting
• Birds feed on its fruits
• Palm civet feeds on its fruits
• Bees visits the flowers as pollinators
• Elephants relishes its leaves
  
  

Uses

• Sap is used to make sugar. alcoholic beverages, toddy and jaggery
• The young unfolding leaves and leaf bud are cooked and eaten as vegetable
• The root is used for treating tooth ailments
• Tender flowers are used for promoting hair growth
• Leaf fibre is used to make brooms, brushes, ropes, baskets etc
• Leaf scurf is used in machine brushes for polishing linen and cotton yarns
• Leaves are used for thatching

Propagation

• Seeds