Palmyrah Palm

Palmyrah Palm
  • Palmyrah Palm: Borassus flabellifer
  • Family: Arecaceae
  • The distinguishing characters of palm in this genus are their palmate, fan like leaves and dioecious character –i.e., male and female flowers are borne on separate trees. Next to coconut, palmyrah is the most abundant palm found in the world.
Crop Improvement
  • Yield potential of padaneer, height of the palm, bearing capacity, flowering in off-season besides the main season and sugar content of the sap are the major econom¬ic traits. The yield of padaneer in 38 palms was recorded for 3 consecutive years from 1982 at Srivilliputhur Palmyrah Research Station, Tamil Nadu. Of the 38 palms studied, 36.33%, 34.2% and 28.93% yielded padaneer in 1, 2 and 3 out of 3 years considered. The samples of trees observed for 3 years together reveal that 68.4%, 36.82%, 31.56% and 5.26% of the palms are poor, low, moderate and good yielders respectively.
  • Male palm -excelled female palms in all characters except percentage of jaggery recovered from padaneer. The tree with good yielding capacity can be used in hybridiza-tion programme to evolve high-yelding palms.
Particulars Sex of palm
Male Female
Yield of padaneer per palm (litres) 115.87 107.31
Mean number of days of tapping 54.8 48.1
Recoveryof padaneer W/W 14.98 15.44.
Quantity of jaggery obtained (kg/palm) 17.36 16.88

  • The tapper has to climb palmyrah palm 2-3 times a day. The tappable palm is about 15-20 m or more in height. The height of palms becomes a limiting factor for the tapper to cover more number of palms. Accidents, sometimes fatal, are not uncommon. Screening for dwarf types is a very important objective in palmyrah breeding. With this objective, 213 palms were observed for their height, among the mature palms available at the Palmyrah Station Srivilliputhur, Tamil Nadu. Nearly 43.7% were semi-dwarf palms. These trees can be utilized in hybridization programme to evolve dwarf plants.
  • The palms have been classified based on percentage of jaggery recorded for padaneer. A total of 43 palms were considered.
  • Considering the criteria, plantation is screened and 16 (9 male and 7 female) palms have been identified as elite palms for higher content of jaggery.

Mother palm selection in palmyrah
  1. Age of the palm : Middle aged – 30 to 40 years
  2. Stature of canopy: Dwarf and stout palms are selected. Trees with compact leaves are preferred to long slender stemmed trees
  3. Selection of seed nuts
  • Stage of maturity: Select bunches with 80 to 90 per cent ripe fruits. Heap the selected fruit bunches for 5 to 6 days for automatic detachment from bunches. Select plumpy and healthy seed nuts.
  • Removal of mesocarp: Allow fruits to ferment for easy removal of mesocarp. While removing mesocarp, the fibre adhering to seed nut should be retained which help in absorption of water leading to better germination.
  • Sex of nuts
  • Seeds of single nut give == female trees
  • Double nuts give == one female and one male
  • Trinuts === Two male and one female
  • To maintain male and female ratios, it is better to collect 10 to 15 per cent of double nuts.
Varieties
  • In India, there is no recognized variety. But palmyrah palms growing in Sri Lanka can be broadly classified into 2 varieties based on pigmentation of fruit skin. They are black and red skinned fruits.
  • Black-skinned fruits have comparatively less red pigment on their skin. Red skinned fruits have variable amounts of black pigments along with very liberal distribution of red in their skin. Fruits and nut number per tree are significantly greater in this variety. But pulp weight per nut is less; sugar, starch and protein constitute 77%, 10% and 2.5% of the pulp respectively. The alkaloids, amino acids and minerals are in greater amount in red skinned varieties. The other favourable fruit features, along with the sap-yielding characteristics of these varieties, seem to favour selection of red-skinned fruit variety for commercial exploitation.
Released varieties
  • SVPR-1: Palmyrah research station, Srivaliputhur (TNAU) has released one improved variety namely SVPR-1 Palmyrah palm.
Features
  1. semi-dwarf type
  2. High padaneer yield of 298 litres per palm in a tapping duration of 95 days.
  3. Quality of padaneer : The padaneer of this variety has a high jaggery content (144 g per litre of padaneer i.e., 14.40 %) and a high brix content.

Last modified: Sunday, 1 April 2012, 6:17 PM