Report compiled for the 2007 Paris International Agricultural Fair
All you need to know about coconut
Origins
More than 2800 palm species!
The first palms appeared on Earth during the Cretaceous period of the secondary era, some 85 million years ago. They were particularly abundant during the tertiary era, but a series of ice ages reduced the area in which they would grow, isolating some species and leading to a drop in palm population levels.
There are now 2800 known species in 226 genera. They are split between six subfamilies making up a single family: Arecaceae or Palmaceae.
On every continent
Palms grow in a range of environments, but are primarily distributed throughout the intertropical zone.
They are found from the Pacific islands to the highlands of the Andes, from rainforests to the grasslands of Africa.
Some species, such as coconut, are exceptionally widespread.
Others are also broadly distributed, such as Elaeis
and Afro-American raffia species.
Some are highly endemic and found in very limited areas (for instance the coco de mer found in the Seychelles), or are only represented by a small number of individuals.
Plants with many uses
Since the dawn of time, palms have provided people with food, materials, etc. From the crown of fronds to the roots, through their fibres and fruit, each part of these plants provides products of use to man.
The roots, flowers, fruits and the oil extracted from the fruit pulp and kernel of different palm species have long been a part of daily life. They are also used to make medicines or hygiene products.
However, it is primarily as foodstuffs that palms are of unequalled importance in the plant kingdom.
Trees that aren't!
Palms are large perennial plants. However, they are not trees in the botanical sense.
Palms do not have trunks - they do not produce wood - but stems.
The leaves
are known as "fronds". They generally form a round umbrella at the tip of the stem. With the roots and the stem, they make up the vegetative system and fuel the plant and its growth through photosynthesis.
The flowers (both male and female) grow on inflorescences in the leaf axil. Some species have wholly male or wholly female palms, while others may have flowers of both sexes on the same inflorescence, or separate inflorescences for each sex. The very numerous tiny flowers may be white, yellow or greenish.
The fruits are either berries (dates) or drupes (coconut), and can weight up to 20 kg (coco de mer). The fruits that develop from an inflorescence form a bunch.
The stem
does not have annual growth rings, and hardly ever has branches. It may be single or multiple, depending on the species, nonexistent or underground as in Geonoma
, arborescent or creeper-like (rattan), bare, smooth, ringed, spiny or covered in leaves or fibre.
The stem grows to its maximum girth in the first few years, before beginning vertical growth from its terminal bud, which can also be eaten as palm cabbages or palm hearts.
The roots are numerous, long and ramified. They provide the palm with minerals and water, and anchor it in the soil. Palms can thus withstand cyclones and even tidal waves (coconut).
Palmaceae are monocotyledons. They are angiosperms, a group that covers all the plants, herbs and (deciduous) trees whose seeds are surrounded by protective fruits, edible or not, that succeed the flowers.
The numerous flowers of palms are grouped together on inflorescences that give rise to fruit bunches or infrutescences once fertilized.
Like aloe or bamboo, several palm species only fruit once, late in their life. It is the terminal bud that turns into a cluster of flowers and then a multitude of fruits that will ensure reproduction, once and for all, as the palms subsequently die, after several decades of vegetative growth.
Rattan is a creeping palm: the fronds and stem have hooked thorns by which they attach themselves to neighbouring trees. To produce cane, the sheath of leaves is removed and the cane is heated and bent into the desired shape.
Raffia is a fibre obtained from the fronds of a palm, Raphia ruffia , that originated in Madagascar. It is used to make string, bags, hats, etc, and also for crafts activities and decorative purposes.