Hyphaene petersiana

Range and habitat

It is found in Burundi, Rwanda, the DRC, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and the northern and north-eastern Limpopo. Its habitat is open woodland, flood plains, banks of rivers and the fringes of pans and swamps.

Reproduction

As with other Hyphaene species, H. petersiana is dioicous and the female plants produce copious fruit of around 60 mm in diameter. Up to 2,000 fruits may be found on a tree, the combined yield of about four seasons. The seeds germinate with difficulty but find saline conditions beneficial. Typical adult plants however stand some 5 to 7 metres tall.

Uses and associations

The plants are utilised by humans and animals. Repeated cutting of the growth point to obtain sap for palm wine production may eventually destroy the trees. The stem pith is edible. Beneath the outer fibrous husk of the fruit is a core of white endosperm known as vegetable ivory, initially soft and edible and containing some liquid comparable to coconut milk. The Ovambo people call the fruit of the Makalani palm eendunga and use it to distill ombike, their traditional liquor. African palm swifts and rufous-tailed palm-thrushes regionally depend on this species for breeding.

Similar species

The species is similar to H. coriacea, which occurs to the southeast. It is however distinguishable by the shape of the fruit–round rather than pear-shaped–and the shape of the stem, which regularly bulges out below the foliage. B. aethiopum has a comparable stem shape.

Gallery

Hyphaene petersiana_arbres_MHNT.jpg|A grove of real fan palms at Namutoni, Etosha, Namibia Hyphaene petersiana MHNT.BOT.2015.2.3.jpg|Fruit sans outer coat, showing thick fibrous coat covering the shell and endosperm, Namibia Hyphaene petersiana03.jpg|Infructescences at Shingwedzi, Kruger N. P. Hyphaene petersiana00.jpg|A waterside grove in Gorongosa Reserve, Mozambique

References

References

1. [http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-101418 The Plant List, ''Hyphaene petersiana'']
2. "World Checklist of Selected Plant Families: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew".
3. Palgrave, Keith Coates. (1984). "Trees of Southern Africa". C. Struik.
4. "The makalani palm". tourbrief.com.
5. van Wyk, Braam, Piet van Wyk. (1997). "Trees of Southern Africa". Struik.
6. Shaanika, Helvy. (26 October 2012). "Ombike – a potent traditional brew". [[New Era (Namibia).
7. [https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/9918#page/86/mode/1up Martius, Carl Friedrich Philipp von. 1845. Historia Naturalis Palmarum 3: 227, ''Hyphaene Petersiana'']
8. Kirk, James Tiberius. 1866. Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany. London, 9: 235, ''Hyphaene ventricosa''