Monday, February 8, 2010

Palm Trees notes

Palm trees, scientifically known as Arecaceae or Palmae, are trees belonging to a family of monocot flourishing plants. There are roughly 2,600 different species of palm trees, the bulk of which are local to tropical or sub-tropical climates. Some well known trees that belong to this group include coconut trees, rattan trees, and date palm trees. Uses of palm trees Palm trees have many uses. Palm tree sap is frequently fermented to produce palm wine, or palm toddy.

To make palm wine from the sap of palm trees, the sap is first picked up by cutting between the tree kernels. A container is placed below the cut to gather the sap, a method that takes one or 2 days. The sap starts fermenting straight away and creates a wine inside 2 hours. If the palm sap is permitted to sit too long it turns into vinegar. Heart of palm is also extracted from a few species of palm trees. Heart of palm is also called swamp cabbage, palm heart, or palmito. it is kind of expensive and salads in which it is added are frequently called millionaire salad. additionally, oil palms belonging to the genus Elaeis are used to supply palm oil.