Talipot Palm is also known as Srithala, Indu Tree in Kannada, Alpayushi in Sanskrit, and Bajar-Battu in Hindi. The botanical name is Corypha umbraculifera and belongs to Arecaceae (Palm) family.
This tree is native of South India, southeast Asia, north to southern China, and Srilanka. Talipot Palm is the largest palms in the world. This tree was in news in Karnataka in December 2019 for its blooms near Udupi. News because the tree blooms once in 30 to 80 years and after the fruits mature in a year, the tree dies.
We drove to the place where the tree was in bloom and got some splendid shots.
Talipot palm grows to a height of 25 meters. The leaves are palmate and are 5 meter in diameter. The tree can have a petiole of up to 4 meters and around 130 leaflets. The inflorescence of the Talipot palm is the largest of any plant on this earth. The inflorescence is 6 to 8 meters long branched stalk and consists of one to several crores of small flowers borne on a top of the trunk.
The tree blooms once in 30 to 80 years because it is monocarpic. After a year the fruits mature and produces thousands of round yellow-green fruits. The fruit is 3 to 4 cm in diameter and contains a single seed. The plant unfortunately dies after fruiting.
Uses:
Manuscripts were written by Southeast Asian on Talipot palm leaf manuscripts. The leaves are used now for thatching and building houses. Palm wine is tapped from the trees.
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