The Uses, Facts And Importance Of The Palm Tree

Trees are extremely useful in several ways,majorly for their ability to produce fruits which of course gives nutrients and vitamins to the body,can also be used in combustion,but the palm tree, has more usage than most trees, you would be amazed at the various usage of a palm tree.

 Palm trees are a botanical family of perennial lianas, shrubs, and trees. They are the only members of the family Arecaceae,which is the only family in the order Arecales. They grow in hot climates. The well known palm trees are:

* Date palm

* Coconut palm (Coconut trees)

* Pindo palm

* Toddy palm (Palm wine)

* African oil palm (Palm Oil)

There are about 2600 species of palm trees, most of them living in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates. Palms are one of the best known and most widely planted tree families. They have held an important role for humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods come from palms. They are often used in parks and gardens that are in areas that do not have heavy frosts. In the past palms were symbols of victory, peace, and fertility. Today palms are a popular symbol for the tropics and for vacations. We talk about various uses of Palm trees especially the date palm and the coconut palm.

 Uses of palm trees  

Human use of palms is as old as, or even older than, civilization itself, starting with the growing of date palms by Mesopotamians and other Middle Eastern peoples 5000 years or more ago. The Date Palm had a great effect on the history of the Middle East. Historian W.H. Barreveld wrote: "Had the date palm not existed, the expansion of the human race into the hot and barren parts of the "old" world would have been much more restricted. The date palm not only provided a concentrated energy food, which could be easily stored and carried along on long journeys across the deserts, it also created a more amenable habitat for the people to live in by providing shade and protection from the desert winds. In addition, the date palm also yielded a variety of products for use in agricultural

production and for domestic utensils, and practically all parts of the palm had a useful purpose".

There are so many more palm tree uses than just providing shade for you on a hot Caribbean beach. It is one of the most widely used trees on the planet. Everything on the tree- even some roots-is reused in some way, shape of form. Here are some of the benefits

1.FRUITS

     Palm trees are large fruit producers. The highly productive date palm is used for a lot more

than just growing the delicious fruit.

     Coconut trees can produce fruit for upwards of 70 years, before the farmers will replace them in the groves/orchards.

     But the other uses for various types of palm tree fruit are for oil, biodiesel, wax, jelly, wine and palm heart for salads.

     Even natural health supplements like Saw Palmetto andthe Acai berry come from palm trees. Products containing the Acai berry or juice are a hot commodity right now in healthy eating and weight loss categories.

     Also there's the Pindo palm that is well known for the jelly and wine people make from their fruit.

     There's also the juice of the toddy palm or palm wine is used to make what the natives of southeast Asia call "sky beer".

     We’ll even eat a coconut sprout right out of the shell and then make decorations, jewelry and lampshades out of the shell when we are done.

2. LEAVES

      When palm trees are pruned, the leaves are useful to farmers they used in feeding animals such as cows, horses, pigs, goats and sheep.

      The leaves can also be used to make huts. Palm leaves make great roofs because of their size- theones from coconut or royal palm in the feather leaf category. The roofs made out of these giant leaves can last anywhere from 5-10 years depending on the weather. Other palm tree uses for leaves are, to produce a different kind of oil and wax from those produced from the fruit. The Puerto Rican hat palm is famous for it's leaves being made into the best quality "straw" hats. Many different leaves are also used in weaving everything from furniture, to decorations and place-mats. Most importantly they do provide the best shade spot whether you are in the desert or on the beach.

3. TRUNKS

      There are cultures that make sugar out of the sap of the sugar palm tree. It's collected very similar to the way we get sap for maple syrup from maple trees but its then fermented into the sugary drink called "toddy". After a coconut tree has gone beyond its productive years, the tree is chopped down. The trunks were considered garbage and tossed away most of the time. Not anymore! Now the wood is harvested from them making some excellent flooring and siding. The wood is extremely hard once cured, or dried. Harder than oak by far. It can be anywhere from blonde to black in color depending on location and growing conditions. In the my area  they are realizing the potential.

4. WAX

      This is some of the best wax available for scented candles. It is soft in texture and holds fragrance easily. The super tall wax palms of Columbia have their fruits harvested for this purpose. There are sealing wax palms too, as in the wax used for sealing important documents.

5. PALM HEART

      The last of the palm tree uses I'll talk about is the palm heart. It is the very inner core at the top of the trunk where the leaves are formed-often call the crown  or the bud.It is a vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees (notably the coconut If you take out the heart of a palm tree and eat it-which is exactly what some cultures do-then you kill the tree. Heart of palm may be eaten on its own, and often it is eaten in a salad. We can’t live without our heart; well neither can the palm. Some species are harvested for just this purpose and are going extinct. Others are grown commercially in orchards or plantations. Palms are one of the fastest growing, renewable resources we have today. The many varieties have served humans for thousands of years and will continue to do so well into the future.

6. PALM OIL

     It is the principal source of palm oil. It is native to west and southwest Africa. It is commonly used in African cooking. Oil is extracted from both the pulp of the fruit ( palm oil, an edible oil) and the kernel (palm kernel oil, used in foods and for soap manufacture). Some scientists and companies are going beyond using just the oil, and are proposing to convert fronds, empty fruit bunches and palm kernel shells harvested from oil palm plantations into renewable electricity,cellulosic ethanol, biogas,biohydrogen and bioplastic. If there are any palm tree uses I might have missed let

me know. I'll be happy include it here.

10 FACTS ABOUT PALM TREES

1. There are over 2,500 species of palm trees. The Arecaceae family of plants includes

wonderfully diverse species found throughout the world, from the desert to the rainforest.

2. Not all palm trees are "trees," and not all plants called "palms" are truly palms. These evergreen plants can grow in the form of shrubs, trees or long, woody vines called lianas. Plants like the

yucca palm, Torbay palm, sago palm and traveler's palm are not part of the Arecaceae family.

3. Palm trees have two different types of leaves: palmate and pinnate. Palmate leaves, like hands, grow in a bunch at the end of a stem. Pinnate leaves are like feathers, growing all along either side of a stem.

4. Palm trees are important religious symbols. In the Bible, the people of Jerusalem greeted a triumphant Jesus just one week before his death and resurrection, a tradition now known and celebrated as Palm Sunday the week before Easter. Palms are mentioned dozens of times in both the Bible and the Quran. In Judaism, palms represent peace and plenty.

5. Lots of staples come from palm trees. Coconuts are an obvious product of palm trees, but did you know that dates, betel nuts and acai fruit all come from palm trees as well? Palm oil, as its name indicates, also comes from the fruit of the oil palm tree.

6. The rarest palm tree is the Hyophorbe amaricaulis; the only one left currently lives at the Botanic Gardens of Curepipe in Mauritius.

7. The tallest palm tree can grow up to 197 feet tall! The Quindio wax palm is Colombia's national tree, and is the tallest-growing species of palm.

8. The coco de mer palm tree has the largest seeds of any plant on Earth. The seeds can be as large as 20 inches in diameter and as heavy as 66 pounds!

9. Palm trees have a history with humans as old as the first societies. Archeological finds have shown that the date palm was commonly used in Mesopotamian society, for food and other purposes. Romans gave palm branches as a symbol of triumph to the triumphant champions of games and wars.

10. Have you ever heard of palm wine? Yeah! Also called "oguro," palm wine is a common alcoholic spirit in regions of Asia and Africa. It can be created from coconut palms, date palms, the Chilean wine palm, and other species. Though many species of palms are sturdy and plentiful, as many as 100 species are endangered due to deforestation and unsustainable cultivation practices, such as for the heart of palm, which comes from a part of the tree that cannot be regrown.

Sources are

1. Palm Tree Uses (www.palmtreepassion.com/palm-tree-uses.html#.Vc7S9OvTWgg)

2. Palm Trees (Wikipedia).

3. 10 surprising facts about palm trees (www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/10-surprising-facts-about-palm-trees)