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Raphia farinifera
Also called Raphia Palm
Raffia palm is a tropical African palm that grows in wet lowland swamp and riverside forest, and is also found around villages. It is a large plant that suits warm, moist, sheltered conditions, and it is rarely grown as a houseplant.
Raphia farinifera is a tropical African palm tree occurring in lowland riparian and swamp forest, also around human habitations and cultivated locations, on stream banks and other moist situations at altitudes of 50–1000 m. Found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Réunion, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and naturalised in east lowlands of Madagascar. Its generic epithet is derived from raphis = 'needle', probably in reference to the 4 mm long yellowish spines on the margins and main veins of the leaflets. The specific name refers to a type of starchy flour obtained from the trunk pith – farina = 'flour', fera = 'bearing'.
This species is strongly associated with human migration throughout the tropics, leaves being used for thatching, the leaflets for plaiting, and the midribs being a useful material for hut construction, furniture, fences, sweeping-brushes, floats for fishing nets, ladders and poles. The epidermis on the upper surfaces of young leaflets yields raffia, a strong, commercially important fibre, used as cordage in horticulture and handicrafts, and in weaving hats, baskets, mats, shoes, bags, fishing nets, hammocks, curtains and textiles. The midveins of the leaflets are used to construct fishing nets and articles for domestic use. The terminal portion of the core is eaten as a vegetable. The young inflorescences are tapped for a sugary sap which lessens flowering and hastens death. The sap is turned into palm wine, and either further distilled into strong alcohol or used as baking yeast. Fruit pulp is also turned into an alcoholic beverage. Oil extracted from the mesocarp (24%) and seed (1%), and sometimes marketed as 'bamboo oil', produces raphia butter, and soap and stearin.
Giant Palm · Ivory Coast raphia palm · Raphia palm · Sudan raphia palm · Pinecone Palm · West African piassava palm · Raffia palm
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Raphia farinifera 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.
