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Hyphaene petersiana
Also called African Ivory Nut Palm, Dum Palm, Gingerbread Palm, Ivory Palm, Lala Palm, Makalani Palm, Mokola Palm
Hyphaene petersiana is a branching fan palm from south central Africa, grown mainly for its ivory-like seed and sap. Its growing habit suits open, sunny, seasonally dry sites with some moisture at the roots.
Hyphaene petersiana, the real fan palm or makalani palm, is a palm tree native to the subtropical, low-lying regions of south central Africa.
It is found in Burundi, Rwanda, the DRC, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and the northern and north-eastern Limpopo. Its habitat is open woodland, flood plains, banks of rivers and the fringes of pans and swamps.
The plants are utilised by humans and animals. Repeated cutting of the growth point to obtain sap for palm wine production may eventually destroy the trees. The stem pith is edible. Beneath the outer fibrous husk of the fruit is a core of white endosperm known as vegetable ivory, initially soft and edible and containing some liquid comparable to coconut milk. The Ovambo people call the fruit of the Makalani palm eendunga and use it to distill ombike, their traditional liquor. African palm swifts and rufous-tailed palm-thrushes regionally depend on this species for breeding.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hyphaene petersiana by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
