Roystonea oleracea
(Jacq.) O. F. Cook
Caribbean Royal Palm
(c) Magne Flåten, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), uploaded by Magne Flåten
(c) Frederico Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Cabbage, Palm heart, Spathe or Young flower stalk, Sago, Starch, Fruit - oil
The tallest and "most majestic" royal palm, Roystonea oleracea is often used as an ornamental tree. The wood can be used for construction. The terminal bud is edible. The sap of young inflorescences can be fermented to produce alcohol. In his 1750 Natural History of Barbados Griffith Hughes reported that the immature inflorescences could be pickled and eaten as a vegetable.
Where to Find It
A tropical plant. It suits the tropics and subtropics. It grows in swampy areas. It also grows on the edge of the rainforest. It grows from sea level to 1760 m altitude. In Cairns Botanical Gardens. In Townsville palmetum. It grows in plant hardiness zones 11-12.
Amazon, Andamans, Asia, Australia, Barbados, Bolivia, Bazil, Central America, Colombia*, Costa Rica, Cuba, Fiji, Guatemala, Guiana, Guianas, Guyana, Hawaii, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Lesser Antilles, Mauritius, Mayotte, North America, Pacific, SE Asia, Singapore, South America, SE Asia, Sri Lanka, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, USA, Venezuela, West Indies,
How to Identify
A large palm. The trunk is whitish and 30 m tall. It is 50 cm across. The trunk is the same width throughout except for a bulge at the base. The leaves are pinnate and green. The leaves are 5-7 m long. They are flat at the bottom of the crown. This is because the leaflets are placed in one plane. There is a prominent green crown-shaft. It is 2 m long. The leaflets are light green and crowded along the midrib in 2 ranks on the same plane. The flower stalk comes out below the crown-shaft. It is over 1 m long and has many branches. The flowers are white or cream. The fruit are small, round and bright red to purplish black. They are 15-20 mm long by 8-10 mm wide.
How to Grow
Plants are grown from seed. The seed are small and round and germinate easily. They take about 3 months to germinate.
Propagation: Seed - The seed takes about 2 months to germinate.
Other Uses
The hard wood has been used to make musical instruments.
Wikipedia
Source ↗Roystonea oleracea, sometimes known as the Caribbean royal palm, palmiste, imperial palm or cabbage palm, is a species of palm which is native to the Lesser Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is also reportedly naturalized in Guyana and on the islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Its specific epithet oleracea means "vegetable/herbal" in Latin and is a form of holeraceus (oleraceus). The plant's buds was eaten in the West Indies.
Production
The young seedlings grow quickly.
Notes
There are 10 Roystonea species.
Names & Synonyms
Cabbage palm, Chaguaramo, Feathery Cabbage Palm, Maparo, Palem raja karibia, Palma real, Venezuela royal palm, West Indian Royal Palm, Yagua
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