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Palm trees make edible fruit?

Risen

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I just discovered this thanks to the internet :p . If you live in Cali or Florida, you know these trees are ALL OVER the place and sometimes produce those big bunches of fruits that look like grapes. Ok, so apparently those are actually dates, and they are edible. Go figure! :p I never knew you could actually eat those things, though I had been wondering about them. Has anyone here ever eaten the fruits from any of the commonly grown palm trees? The next time I see some producing fruit I'll probably ask if I can't collect them for myself. I suspect the squat/short palm varieties would be much easier to get to though.
 

Laurie

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I know if you buy ornamental plants at the store (such as ornamental peppers) you shouldn't eat them because they may be treated with pesticides that are not for human consumption. You might run into the same problem with (ornamental?) palm trees.
 

Risen

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I know if you buy ornamental plants at the store (such as ornamental peppers) you shouldn't eat them because they may be treated with pesticides that are not for human consumption. You might run into the same problem with (ornamental?) palm trees.

Yea, I was wondering about that. It'd probably be best to ask around before I go collecting any fruit :p . But it's good to know that if for some reason I were stranded out in the middle of nowhere incali, there are plenty of palms around for fruit, lol.
 

Risen

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Apparently the most common type we have down here, the mexican fan palm, makes decent fruit for eating. Native American cultures would use the fruits for eating and the seeds to make a meal for their breads. Perfectly edible. There is another variety called the Queen palm which is also common, but the fruit is not as good (still edible though). I say if you can eat it, take it. Times are tough. Why let good fruit go to waste? :p
 

Gish

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Also, if you were desperate, you can cut into several species of palm tree and eat the "Heart of palm" as it is called. It does kill the plant, though.
 

Kingfisher

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yeah, Risen, if you can harvest the natural growing fruit for free, why wouldn't you, right? it makes sense.

Also, if you were desperate, you can cut into several species of palm tree and eat the "Heart of palm" as it is called. It does kill the plant, though.

palm hearts are pretty popular in latin and south america. they are expensive though, usually, so i guess that they are something of a delicacy. they sell them in stores around the world too.


we have coconut palms here. i found out that it takes a full year for a coconut fruit to grow, to become completely ripe. and the biggest trees can produce a few hundred coconuts per year! the smaller trees obviously produce a lot less.
when they harvest coconuts here they just climb up the tree. some of them use a leather strap around their ankles to climb easier, but a lot of the experienced harvesters just climb up. and of course everyone that climbs, climbs trees barefoot.

3998757275_bfd4822484.jpg
 

Risen

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There's a palm tree in my apartment complex that is currently putting out a huge bunch of fruits, and its juuust about the right height for me to reach... pith a ladder or something :p . I'll have to sneak out there really late at night when the fruits ripen so I don't look strange as fuck. I think maybe its a Queen palm, but I'm crossing my fingers that it might be something better :p .
 

kyuuei

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Dates rock. I ate them all the time overseas.
 

Fluffywolf

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I thought palm trees grew coconuts, which is a fruit.
 

Blackmail!

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In nature, you have thousands and thousands of species of palm trees. It's a rather large family of trees, and not every specie produces edible fruit. And even then, their appearances and tastes can vary tremendously.

Some fruits are very fleshy and sweet, some others can only be compared to dry nuts, while some others are extremely fat and oily, and would rather taste like avocadoes or olives.

For instance, you should not confuse the Edible Date-Palm (Phoenix dactylifera), and the Canary Island Date-Palm (Phoenix canariensis). The later specie is only used for ornamental reasons, because their fruits are hard and almost tasteless.
 
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Halla74

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Here in Tallahassee, Florida, we have several species of exotic palms that have been planted over the past hundred years or so.

We are in ZONE 6??? which means that only varieties that can survive frost in winter make it here year round.

The most popular palms that are cold tolerant, and that are planted throughout town are:

Cabbage Palm (State Tree / Indigenous to Area) - I've never eaten the grape-like seeds...

Chinese%20Fan.jpg


Sabal_palmetto043.jpg


Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix Caraiensis / Rare and ghetting More Rare as California will not Export its larger specimens anymore. One of these that is 10feet high (trunk only, no fronds can go for $40,000.)
Canare_Date_Palm.jpg


Pindo (Jelly) Palm (Butia capitata) - HAS Edible Fruit!
pindo_in_fruit_op_450x600.jpg


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butia_sharp.jpg


(Cycas Revoluta - not actually a palm, but a cycad, like the plants on the Earth when the dinosaurs were alive) - Now, King Sagos do not make edible fruit, but they do make hundreds of HUGE, Walnut shaped seeds, covered in a red, waxy skin. They make great bonsai plants. You soak the seeds in water until the red skin comes off (dig off with your fingers after a few days) and then plant it in a dish with some dirt and peat over it. Keep it moist until it sprouts, sometimes 6 months later, but it's worth it.

Here's a picture of a King Sago Palm in my front yard from a few years ago, where I had to prune it back because the middle grew a massive seed impregnated flower:

002.jpg


Several small sago palms at the beach:
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King Sago "male" plant with pollen cones:
20040524_full.jpg


The seeds:
Cycas+Revoluta+female+reproductive+structure.jpg


If anyone would like me to mail them some sago palm seeds for trying to make a bonsai out of them, I'll be happy to later this winter, when they are ready. Just PM me.
 

Eric B

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I've recently been taking note of the different type of palms in different places. This after recently exploring Sydney and the Gold Coast on Windows Live and Google. And who could forget the giant Washingtonians that criss cross the LA area.

The cabbage palms go up as far as Virginia Beach! (Though I think many of them were damaged in some of the storms they've been having over the years). But they are only around the hotels on the beach (and there's one cluster of them at some drive in business a few miles inland near a place called Indian River).
I was surprised, as when you travel south by the 95 (which is inland until Florida), you don't see any palms until you hit Savannah, and those are the "cabbage" species too, and even then, there are not an awful lot. Then, when you enter Florida, you see them a lot more (including the little pairs of cabbage variety in the median of the highway), and you start seeing the other varieties too.

Of course, here in NYC, we had about 12 of them in the World Financial Center. I believe they survived the 9/11 attack (even though the glass dome they were under was damaged). They looked like cabbage palms, but kept growing towards the dome, so maybe they were Washingtonians? (Don't know why they would put those in a limited height indoor space). Don't know what they will do when they run out of space, and I haven't been there in years.

(Otherwise, in NY, the ailanthus altissimas and acacia berlandieris (which are typical deciduous trees) always reminded me of palms because of the pinnate leaf arrangement).

The date palms are the nicest.

When I see the spidery leaves of these things, it reminds me of the kinds of creatures probably crawling on them in the tropical areas.
 
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miss fortune

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yes :)

of course there's the best known date palms and coconut palms, but the palm trees that grew all over the place where I was in brazil made fruit that looked like mini-coconuts. I was curious and decided to try one (cracked it on the sidewalk with a large rock... very advanced, I know :rolli:) and it tasted a lot like a coconut too. Apparently they're popular eating with children.

I guess it matters where you are as to what edible thing they may make, but yeah, palm trees make edible fruit!
 

Halla74

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The cabbage palms go up as far as Virginia Beach! (though I think many of them were damaged in some of the storms they've been having over the years). But they are only around the hotels on the beach (and there's one cluster of them at some drive in bisuness a few miles inland near a place called Indian River).

I was surprised, as when you travel south by the 95 (which is inland until Florida), you don't see any palms until you hit Savannah, and those are the "cabbage" species too, and even then, there are not an awful lot. Then, when you enter Florida, you see them a lot more (including the little pairs of cabbage variety in the median of the highway), and you start seeing the other varieties too.

Of course, here in NYC, we had about 12 of them in the World Financial Center. I believe they survived the 9/11 attack (even though the glass dome they were under was damaged). They looked like cabbage palms, but kept growing towards the dome, so maybe they were Washingtonians? (Don't know why they would put those in a limited height indoor space). Don't know what they will do wen they run out of space, and I haven't been there in years.

My wife and I went to Vancouver, B.C. about 7 years ago. They are about the same latitude as New York I think, maybe a bit more North. Anyway, we were very surprised to see three varieties of palms (Pindo Plams, and Windmill Palms, and King Sagos) planted OUTDOORS around the perimeter of a large public park that is on the water. We freaked out. The winters there are very cold, but I guess by the sea the salt in the water/air keeps these anomolous palms from ever freezing and perishing. It's truly cool to see them that far North.
 

Eric B

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My wife and I went to Vancouver, B.C. about 7 years ago. They are about the same latitude as New York I think, maybe a bit more North. Anyway, we were very surprised to see three varieties of palms (Pindo Plams, and Windmill Palms, and King Sagos) planted OUTDOORS around the perimeter of a large public park that is on the water. We freaked out. The winters there are very cold, but I guess by the sea the salt in the water/air keeps these anomolous palms from ever freezing and perishing. It's truly cool to see them that far North.

Wow; that's much further north, because the US-Canada border west of the great lakes is further north than where the straight border picks up briefly between NY State and Canada near Montreal. And that's way upstate from NYC, which is the southern tip.

Anyway, the Pacific climate is different, like Seattle being "marine" climate (NYC and the rest of the mid-Atlantic is "humid-continental"), and I don't think that gets quite as cold as us, or at least have the same cold winds. You probably have the larger mountain ranges blocking more of the Arctic air, which we get having only small mountains to the north. Like Tokyo is supposedly the same altitude as NYC, but the climate is like LA (and thus would have a lot of palms), because the huge mountains block the cold air.
 
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