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Phoenix reclinata
Also called Reclining Date Palm, Wild Date Palm, Cape Date Palm, Coffee Palm, Dwarf Datepalm, False Datepalm, Feather Palm
In Singapore: African Wild Date, Senegal Date Palm (Grown in Singapore)
Phoenix reclinata is a clumping, dioecious palm from tropical Africa, Madagascar and southwest Arabia, grown as an ornamental and garden tree. Give it full sun, well-drained soil and warmth, and keep it out of frost.
Phoenix reclinata (reclinata - Latin, reclining), the wild date palm or Senegal date palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family native to tropical Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar. It is introduced in Florida, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands, Tunisia and Vietnam. The plants are found from sea level to 3000 m, in rain forest clearings, monsoonal forests and rocky mountainsides.
In addition to the fruit, which attracts animals, including humans, the palm heart can be eaten as a vegetable. In KwaZulu-Natal, and the Okavango Delta, Botswana, the sap is tapped shortly before flowering to make palm wine. The fibres of young, unopened leaves can be used to make carpets, kilts and brooms. The roots contain tannin and can be used to make a brown dye. They also produce an edible gum. The wood is lightweight and not particularly useful.
Cape Verde Island Date Palm · Canary Island date palm · Date palm · Mangrove date palm · Dwarf Date Palm · Cliff date palm · Wild date palm · Date palm
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Phoenix reclinata 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.
