Actinorhytis calapparia

About This Tree

ARECACEAE (Palm family)

A Calappa palm in Papua New Guinea.
©Dr. William J. Baker

Calappa Palm is originated from Papua New Guinea and The Soloman Islands and later on introduced to Southeast Asia. It is a tall, solitary palm with a height between 12-15 meters. The trunk is relatively slender, light grey and is prominently ringed with the scars of old leaf bases. At the base, the trunks are fixed by a large conical mass of aerial roots and above the trunk it forms a meter long pale green crown shaft.  The leaf crown is sparse but spherical in shape. Each arching leaf is 3 meters long and bears dark green, pinnate leaflets. It is a monoceious palm and forms cream flowers of both sexes that produce large ovoid fruit of red or reddish purple colour.

The seeds of Calappa palm. ©Philippe

Common Uses

Calappa palm is extensively cultivated in Southeast Asia and Malesia as the villagers attribute it magical or medicinal powers. It is also used as a substitute to betel (buah pinang in sirih). In some parts of Indonesia, it is used for scurf. Apart from this, it shows some anti-oxidant activity.

Various stages of seed ripening.

Interesting Facts!

• Actinorhytis is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family, it contains only this species, A. calapparia.
• It has the largest fruit of any palm in the Iguanurinae, a sub-tribe of palm family.
• It cannot tolerate sustained periods of cold and only grow well in tropical and warmer subtropical areas.

References:

http://www.stuartxchange.com/CalappaPalm.html

http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Actinorhytis_calapparia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinorhytishttp://zipcodezoo.com/index.php/Actinorhytis_calapparia

http://zipcodezoo.com/index.php/Actinorhytis_calapparia

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