Bark
Stem solitary or clustered, erect, ringed with leaf scars; mature stems greyish-brown. The plant commonly produces several stems from the base.
Syn. Licuala horrida
Stem solitary or clustered, erect, ringed with leaf scars; mature stems greyish-brown. The plant commonly produces several stems from the base.
Leaves are circular in outline, with narrow lobes with squared-off ends.
Flowers are borne in stalks arising from among the leaf bases, white or cream colour.
Fruit is bright red, the size of a marble (about 0.5 inch in diameter). Seed is small and round.
The genus name Licuala derives from “lkowala,” a local name used by Indigenous communities of Indonesia’s Maluku Islands. The species name spinosa comes from the Latin word for “thorny” or “spiny”—referring to the sharp, dark teeth lining its leaf stalks.
Bangladesh to Philippines, Hawaii, Trinidad-Tobago