Caryota urens

Scientific name: Caryota urens L.

Family: Arecaceae

Bengali/Vernacular name: Ban supari, Ban khajur, Golsagu, Golmar, Chau.

Tribal name: Souii-phang (Garo); Khow (Khumi); Chee tengro (Marman); Tlouw (Khasia); Tumthing (Lushai); Mewn-kwayn-sthei (Rakhaing); Chalgua, Su-mal (Tripura).

English name: Jaggery palm, Kittul sago, Fish-tail palm, Wine palm.

Description of the plant: A solitary, erect, cylindric palm, up to 16 m tall and 60 cm thick at the base, grey, annulate due to leaf scar. Leaves10-15 per tree, compound, bipinnate, broad, to 7 m long; pinnae 5-7 pairs, to 1.5 m long, leaflets lamina cuneiform, apex premorse. Inflorescence a spadix, interfoliar, enormous, 3-4 m long, green round, branches rope-like, up to 2 m long, simple, drooping from the end of the stalk, light green when young, dark green with age, bearing the monoecious, very numerous flowers, placed in 3s, a female flower in between two male flowers. Fruit a globose berry.

Plant parts used: Fruit.

Medicinal uses: Juice prepared from fruit of the plant is used to wash the heads every day until the hair fall is stopped.

Distribution: North Bengal, Sylhet, Dhaka, Mymensingh, Chittagong, in forests and village groves.