Raphia farinifera

What to Eat

Edible parts: Nuts, Leaves, Sago, Terminal bud, Fruit, Sap, Vegetable, Fruit - oil

The sap from the trunk is fermented to make palm wine and can also be used to make a sweet beverage. It can be obtained by felling the trunk and allowing the sap to drain, or by boring a hole near the apex of the trunk. An edible starch is obtained from the stem. The fruit is boiled and eaten, and an oil is extracted from it — boiled fruit pulp yields a yellow fat known as raphia butter, which has a good flavour when fresh. To extract it, the fruits are crushed, water is added, the mixture is boiled and left to cool, and the floating oil is skimmed off for use in cooking. The seed is also edible.

Where to Find It

It is a tropical plant. It grows in the lowlands. It grows in swamp areas. It grows from sea level to 880 m altitude. In Tanzania it grows from sea level to 2,500 m above sea level. It suits moist and humid locations. It suits plant hardiness zones 10-11. In Townsville palmetum.

Africa, Australia, Cameroon, Central Africa, Congo, East Africa, Fiji, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mayotte, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pacific, Southern Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe,

How to Identify

A palm with a single trunk. The trunk is usually very short. The fronds grow to 8-10 m high. There are new suckers produced at the base. The leaves are 15-18 m long. They hang over. They are feather-like and 18 m long. The male and female flowers are separate on a large branched plume like structure. This can be 3 m long and take 2-3 years to develop. The flower head starts erect and later bends over and hangs below the leaves. The fruit are oblong and 9 cm long. They have overlapping scales. They are shiny and brown and have one seed inside.

How to Grow

It spreads by suckers. Seeds are slow to germinate. The thick outer layer of the seeds needs to be removed.

Propagation: Pre-soak seed for 24 hours in warm water and sow in containers. Germination requires several months.

Medicinal Uses

None known

Other Uses

Raffia, widely used in weaving baskets, mats, and similar items, is obtained from the leaflets of this plant. The large midribs of the leaves and the leaf stalks are widely used to construct the framework of houses, as poles, and for making furniture. They can be split into strips for weaving mats, baskets, and similar items. The leaves are used for thatching and for weaving baskets, mats, and hats. Fibres from the leaves are used as tying material and for weaving mats, hoods, bags, curtains, and other items. A tough fibre known as piassava, obtained from the leaf sheaths, is used for making brooms and rope. The fibre is derived from the cuticle of leaves harvested before full expansion, which are peeled on both sides and divided into narrower strips using a comb-like tool. It appears as flat, straw-coloured strips about 12–18mm wide and 90–120cm long, and can be divided into fine threads. It is used for delicately plaited goods, hats, floor mats, and wrapping goods; loose strips are widely used by gardeners and nurserymen in place of Russian bast or tie bands. It has also been woven into superior matting used instead of tapestry for wall coverings. The preparation of raffia is one of Madagascar's most extensive industries — men cut the palm leaves in the forest and bring them home for women to complete the work, with the fibre cured the same day it is stripped. Traditional uses also include cordage and fishing nets. Raphia wax, derived from the lower surface of the leaves, is used as a polish for boats and floors, or for making candles. Oil extracted from the boiled fruit pulp and fruit kernels is used for producing soap and stearin. The fruit shells are made into snuffboxes or buttons. The wood is used for construction after the sap has been allowed to drain.

Raphia farinifera is a tropical African palm tree occurring in lowland riparian and swamp forest, also around human habitations and cultivated locations, on stream banks and other moist situations at altitudes of 50–1000 m. Found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Réunion, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and naturalised in east lowlands of Madagascar. Its generic epithet is derived from raphis = 'needle', probably in reference to the 4 mm long yellowish spines on the margins and main veins of the leaflets. The specific name refers to a type of starchy flour obtained from the trunk pith – farina = 'flour', fera = 'bearing'. It is one of 26 species of the genus Raphia currently recognised, all native to Africa and Madagascar, with one species, R. taedigera also found in Central and South America. Their fronds, botanically a single leaf, are among the longest in the plant kingdom, those of R. regalis reaching a length of 25 m. The trunk of this species is up to 10 m tall and about 1 m in diameter – the topmost fronds reach up a further 10 m – and sheathed in persistent leaf bases. Trees occur singly or, because of suckering, in dense clumps. The pendant inflorescences are massive, up to 3.3 m (11 ft) long, and up to 35 cm (14 in) thick. | bearing unisexual flowers – male flowers at the distal end, female flowers at proximal – with first order branches of 13–32 rachillae very close-packed in almost one plane (see illustration). Raphia spp. are monocarpic or hapaxanthic, flowering and fruiting only once, followed by death. Raphia farinifera flowers when the tree is some 20–25 years old, and it takes a further 5–6 years from flowering to ripe fruit, all fruits ripening together. The fruit is oblong to ovoid, 5–10 cm in length, with imbricate, glossy, golden-brown scales. Like all Raphia species, it displays the very rare 1/4 phyllotaxy.

Production

Trees live for 25-35 years, set flowers, then wither and die.

Other Information

It is important in tropical swamp areas.

Notes

There are about 28-30 Raphia species. Most are in Africa and one is in central America. Raffia fibre is made from the leaf bases.

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