Edible palm fruits

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

What do we, the inhabitants of the middle latitudes, know about palm trees and their fruits? In our stores there are dates (already in the form of dried fruits) and coconuts. The latter we call nuts, although they are not. Botanists classify coconuts as berries. Thus, this fruit is closer to a watermelon than to a hazelnut, despite its hard shell. But there are other fruits of palm trees, in addition to coconut and dates. And also edible. Which? We will talk about them in this article. And by the way, bananas do not grow on palm trees, but are the fruits of perennial grass. These are tropical wonders.

Coconut tree

When the Portuguese first saw the berries of this tree, they had no doubt that it was a nut. The tasty fleshy core, hidden under a shell as hard as wood, attracted their attention. For the "shaggy" hairs on the fetus, the Portuguese dubbed it "coco" - "monkey". And so it happened: in English, the overseas berry began to be called coconut. And the name was translated into Russian literally: coconut. Scientists consider Malaysia to be the birthplace of the berry, from where the fruits,well kept afloat, spread by sea currents throughout the tropical region. Why is the coconut palm called the universal nurse? Yes, because wood is a valuable material. Its leaves serve as roofing for huts. The fruit of the coconut palm at different stages of ripeness gives juice, milk, oil, tasty pulp. The farm even uses the hard shell of the “walnut”. Various products are made from it.

Fruit of the coconut palm: the universal breadwinner

"Hairy nuts" form the basis of the well-being of many people in the Pacific region. When they are less than five months old, they have coconut juice inside. It is sour-sweet in taste and perfectly quenches thirst. Juice contains many nutrients. As it matures, droplets of vegetable fat appear in this liquid. Juice turns into milk. This fragrant, sweet emulsion is widely used in cooking, cosmetology and traditional medicine. Milk is left to "sour" - it turns out something like sour cream. They also make oil from it. During the period of maximum maturity, when the mass of the fruit of the coconut palm reaches one and a half to two kilograms, pulp is formed inside the shell. It is scraped off the walls and a lot of delicious dishes are prepared from it. Dried, it can be stored for years. This is the same coconut we use for topping cakes.

Date palm

This short tree has the scientific name Phoenix. Palm began to be cultivated in deepantiquity - in Mesopotamia, in the IV millennium BC. In different regions it produces hybrids, and not always with edible fruits. What we are accustomed to eating is the dried fruit of the Phoenix dactylifera palm. It is a squat shrub with feathery leaves that are metamorphosed into sharp spines at the base. The fruits of the date palm are very high in calories (220-280 kcal per hundred grams). In addition, when dried, they can be stored and transported for a long time. In India, tari, a sweet wine, is made from the local Phoenix silvestris palm species. But the Robelin date from Laos, which gives black fruits, is grown as an ornamental houseplant. In Europe, Phoenix canariensis Chabaud grows in the Canary Islands. This tall - up to 15 meters - tree produces small amber fruits.

Peach palm

The homeland of this high - up to 30 meters - tree is the jungle of the Amazon basin. Local Indian tribes have long cultivated this plant, since not only the fruits of palm trees are edible, but also the stem peeled from the bark. The leaves were used for roofing huts. The scientific name of the palm is Bactris gasipaes, and the popular name is "peach", because of the round pink-orange fruits. They certainly taste different from Mediterranean fruits. They hang in long bunches of hundreds of pieces. The fruit has a thin skin and a mealy, sweetish pulp. The stone is large, with a pointed top. The Indians boil the fruits in s alted water for several hours and use them with sauce as a side dish, like we do potatoes. The pulp is also used to prepare localvodka. Since it is rather dry, it is ground and added to flour for various pastries. There is only one minus the peach palm. Harvesting a rich harvest is hampered by sharp, dagger-like black and long spikes at the top of the trunk.

Seychelles palm

The fruit of the tree with the scientific name Lodoicea maldivica is truly a champion. When ripe, it reaches eighteen kilograms in weight, and its dimensions are impressive - more than a meter in circumference. The locals cannot complain about the crop failure either. One Seychellois palm brings about seventy such weights consistently. The fruit, however, ripens for six whole years. But don't wait so long! One-year-old fruits are eaten. It is at this age that the pulp has the consistency of jelly, because later it hardens and becomes strong, like ivory. This delicacy used to be highly valued. Europeans called this "nut" sea coconut (coco de mer) and paid big money for it. The fruit of the Seychelles palm was endowed with magical properties and was considered a panacea for all diseases. No less amazing is the tree itself. Unlike coconut palms, Seychelles stand unbendingly under a hurricane wind, like stone columns. And they begin to bear fruit only when they reach the age of a hundred years. When it rains, you can hide under the crown of the Seychelles palm tree, as if under the most reliable roof. The leaves of the tree form grooves-water traps. The streams of rain roll down to the cuttings at the trunk and then along it to the roots.

Ginger palm

Tree namespeaks for itself. Only now the taste of gingerbread is not the fruits of palm trees, but fibrous mealy husks. Although the poor strata of the population eat dryish bunches. This palm tree has one feature that distinguishes it from others. A tree can have three or four branches. Each of them ends with fan-shaped leaves, among which flowers appear. Not all of them turn into fruits, because ginger palm trees come in different sexes. Only female individuals give people clusters of shiny beautiful light brown fruits. In southern Egypt, this tree is called especially poetically - "dum palm".

Açai

The tree is native to northern Brazil, the modern state of Para. Acai palm fruits are small, round, up to one and a half centimeters in diameter. Like figs, the berries come in two varieties: greenish and dark purple. They taste like raspberries or blackberries with a slight hint of walnut. But this is not what distinguishes the acai fruit from other palm berries.

They contain as much protein as cow's milk. In total, a handful of small fruits can satisfy the hunger of an adult: the energy value of the product is 182 kcal. High in them and the content of iron, vitamins B and E. At the same time, a very low level of cholesterol. Acai palm fruits are recommended for athletes, as they promote muscle regeneration, and are also prescribed for patients with anemia. They are eaten both fresh and cooked. Liqueurs and wines are made from fruits, and salads are made from kidneys.

Serenoa

This tree hasSoutheast Asia has other names. Most often it is called a dwarf or creeping palm. The tree brings berries 2-3 centimeters in size. Outwardly, the fruits of the creeping palm tree look like large olives. Seenoa berries are very he althy.

They contain carotene, which helps improve visual acuity. The extract from the berries of this plant is used to treat acne and as a natural sunscreen. Inhabitants of those regions where saw palmetto grows, eat fresh dwarf palm fruits, considering them the strongest aphrodisiac.