A tall dioecious
palm; trunk stout, unarmed. Leaves terminal, plicately multified; petiole
spinous, blade rigidly coriaceous, segments linear, margins spinulose. Flower
borne in spadices, female spadix sparingly branched, bearing few scattered
solitary flower. Male flower small, mixed with scaly bracts, in two series in
small spikelet. Perianth glumaceous; sepals 3, narrowly cuneate, tip inflexed
truncate; petals obovate-spathulate. Stamens 6. Pistilodes of bristle. Female
flower larger, globose. Fruit a large subglobose drupe, with 1-3 obcordate
fibrous pyrens; pericarp thinlyfleshy. Seeds oblong.
Common name:
Tal. Palmyra palm, Toddy palm.
Scientific name:
Borassus
flabellifer L.
Family:
Palmae (Arecaceae).
Distribution & Ecology: Throughout the tropical India; occasionally planted.
Flowering & Fruiting: February to August.
Uses:
- Whole plant: Expressed juices of young roots, terminal buds and leaf stalks used in gastritis and hiccough.
- Roots: Used as antigonorrhoeal, anthelmintic and restorative.
- Spadices: palm juices used as diuretic, laxative; useful in dropsy and ulcers; as candy useful in cough and pulmonary infection, hepatic disorders, gllet and as antidote in poisoning. Fermented juice used in applied to gangrenous ulcers, carbuncles and other skin dieses. Ash of dry spadices useful as antacid and in heart burn, enlarged liver and spleen.
- Fruits: pulp used as cooling, diuretic, nutritive; useful in hiccough, nausea and skin disease.
- Leaves: Used in cattage industry.
- Toddy: Fresh juice coming from cuts made on flowering stalks is cooling, tonic, stimulant, antiphlegmatic and antiphlogistic, used as diuretic and laxative.
Propagated by: seeds.
Notes on cultivation:
Grows on wide of soils from sandy loam to red lateritic.
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