Arenga wightii Griffith (PALMAE)
Common names
Kannada: Dhudsal, Kaadu eechalu.
Malayalam: Alathil tenga, Malam tengu.
Tamil: Alam panei.
Description: Slender palms, forming dense clumps by suckers, ca 10 m tall and ca 30 cm diam., smooth, grey; densely clothed with black fibrous remains of the leaf sheaths. Leaves 30-70 cm long; leaflets alternate, crowded, linear-ensiform, 30-115 x 4-10 cm, narrowed at apex, dark green above, white beneath, margins sparingly toothed from the middle, 2-aurcled at the base, the lower auricle very large, 3-5 cm long, obliquely overlapping the petiole; petioles 10-20 cm long. Flowers unisexual, in separate spadices, ca 1.5 m long. Sepals 3, orbicular with thick bases. Petals 3, oblong, very thick and coriaceous. Male flowers: strongly scented, distant. Stamens numerous; filaments short; anthers apiculate; pistillode 0. Female flowers: staminodes many or 0. Ovary 3-loculed; stigmas 3, short, recurved. The fruits are arranged spirally and densely clustered on the lower portions of the spadix branches. They are depressed globose, approximately 3 cm across, crowned with the remnants of stigmas, and turn yellow when ripe. The seeds, numbering 3, are compressed, flat on one side and curved on the other (plano-convex), smooth, and brown in color.
Flowering & Fruiting: November – June.
Distribution: India: South W. India. Common in the forests of Western Ghats up to 1000 m. Endemic.
Uses: Toddy is obtained by tapping the peduncle. Pith sweetish and edible. Leaves are also eaten when tender.