Thanks for this palm Raman Ji .. New for me On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 2:23 PM, raman <raman_arunacha...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> African Oil Palm is a tall tree, 8.3-20 m in height, erect, heavy, with > ringed trunk. Male and female flowers occur in separate clusters, but on > same tree. Trunk is up to 20 m tall, usually less, 30 cm in diameter. Leaf > stalks are 1.3-2.3 m long, 12.5-20 cm wide, saw-toothed, broadened at base, > fibrous, green. Leaves are compound, 3.3-5 m long, with 100-150 pairs of > leaflets. Leaflets are 2-4 ft long, 3.5-5 cm broad. Central nerve is very > strong, especially at base. Flower-stalks arise from lower leaf-axils, > 10-30 cm long and broad. Male flowers are borne on short furry branches > 10-15 cm long, set close to trunk on short stalks. Female flowers and > consequently fruits are borne in large clusters of 200-300, close to the > trunk on short heavy stalks. Each fruit is plum-like, ovoid-oblong, up to > 3.5 cm long and about 2 cm wide, black when ripe, red at base, with thick > ivory-white flesh and small cavity in center. Nuts are encased in a fibrous > covering which contains the oil. About 5 female inflorescences are produced > per year. Each inflorescence weighs about 8 kg, the fruits weighing about > 3.5 g each. African Oil Palm is native the rain-forests of West Africa. > > Raman > -- Regards Dr Balkar Singh Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology Arya P G College, Panipat Haryana-132103 09416262964
