View crop

Hyphaene thebaica

Authority	(L.) C. Martius
Family	Liliopsida:Arecidae:Arecales:Palmae
Synonyms
Common names	dom (Sudan), dom palm
Editor
Ecocrop code	6837

Notes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION An evergreen tree (fan palm) with a branched trunk reaching 15 m in height. USES The fibres extracted from the leaves are used for bags and brush manifacture. leaves are used for mats, baskets, and hats. The fruit is edible and are made into syrup or ground to meal, which is made into cakes and sweetmeats. The seeds are used as vegetable ivory and are made into buttons, beads, etc. The unribe kernel and the cotyledon or cabbage are edible. The terminal meristem can be tapped for palm wine. Mentioned as a useful agroforestry species. GROWING PERIOD Perennial. Bearing after 6-10 years, with a rotation of about 60 years. Fruits ripen in 240-365 days. COMMON NAMES Doum palm, Dum palm, Gingerbread palm, Palma dum, Pan de jengibre. FURTHER INF Doum palm can be found growing wild throughout the drier regions of tropical Africa at elevations between sea level and 600 m and in the Middle East and western India. It is an indicator of good soils, with shallow ground water table, and it is often found near rivers, but it is also common in hot dry valleys. It is resistant to bushfires. Fruit yield from adult palms may be up to 50 kg annually.
Sources
SOURCES (H. thebaica (L.) Mart.) Purseglove J 1972 pp 425 [USE] White F 1983 pp 55 107 108 219 220 223 Nair P 1984 pp 20 [DRA, TEXT, TEMP, PH, SAL, USE] Hoyos F J 1984 pp 75 Maydell H 1986 pp 303-304 [FER, DRA, SAL, PH, TEXT, RAIN, DEP, USE] Kirby R 1963 pp 379-380 [USE]