Description

• Wild Date Palm is the wild cousin of the better-known Date Palm. It looks the same in almost every way, but shorter height at maturity.
• It varies from 4 to 8 m in height and 40 cm in diameter.
• The leaves are 3 m long, gently recurved, on 1 m petioles with spines near the base.
• The leaf crown grows to 10 m wide and 7.5-10 m tall containing up to 100 leaves.
• The inflorescence grows to 1 metre with white, unisexual flowers forming to a large, pendent infructescence.
• The single-seeded fruit ripens to a purple red colour and is eaten in India.

Uses   

• The fruits are edible, and it taste sweet.
• The fresh sap from the cut flower buds is fermented into toddy (alcoholic drink) or boiled to make palm jaggery (whole cane sugar).