How many kinds of palm have you met?

Palms thrive in Africa, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Indo-China and on the Indian subcontinent, some even thrive in arid and semi-arid areas.

Palm trees have two types of evergreen leaves — fan-like (palmate) or feather-like (pinnate). They have enormous explosions of flowers (inflorescence) and produce a prodigious amount of pollen: the coconut palm is said to produce 400,000,000 grains of pollen (imagine the hay-fever this could cause!). They grow in a variety of ecosystems: tropical rainforests, coastlines, desert and semi-desert areas, up to a height of 2,300 m (the windmill palm of Kumaon). Palm trees may grow singly or in clusters.

Canes, which are also a part of this grand khaandaan, claw their way across the forest floor with the help of leaves armed with talons in hot and humid regions.

We have appreciated; used abused and exploited palms and canes for over 5,000 years; it has been claimed that many of the civilisations of the Middle-East would not have developed had it not been for these tall, upstanding trees. We have used palms for food, drink (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic!), shelter, to make furniture, rubber, oil, doormats, baskets, rope, cordage, blowpipes, and even clothes. Mischievous schoolboys were once spanked with canes, while coconut palms swaying in the breeze have become the symbol of balmy beach resorts. The Romans awarded palm leaves for accomplishments in the gladiatorial arenas and palms have been used as religious symbols, too.

The best-known palm, perhaps, is the coconut palm and its uses are myriad. Doctors advise coconut (always called “tender”) water for dehydration (it was even given intravenously in extreme cases), the flesh makes for a delicious snack, coconut oil is used for high-heat cooking and, for keeping long hair silky and shiny (if a bit smelly), the milk for making prawn/fish curry and the shell to make knick-knacks and utensils, the leaves for thatching. Coir, the coarse fibre taken from the outer part of the shell is used for making rope, doormats, mattresses, brushes, and even bee-smokers. Monkeys have been trained to scamper up coconut trees and throw down the huge, heavy nuts for us, though lithe, long-limbed youths do the job equally well.

The nuts of the areca palm (supari) are used in paan, and sap from the nipa palm is used to make vinegar, and toddy, one of the more potent of alcohols.

The nipa palm, growing among mangroves, is, in fact, thought to be one of the world’s seventh-oldest flowering plants, dating back to 100-110 million years.

The date palm is what enabled the nomads in the Middle-East and North Africa survive and thrive, as the trees grew in clusters around oases, and dates provided a high-energy, sugar-rich food source — and also toddy when fermented. Along with the nuts of the palmyra palm, dates are also used in the production of gur (jaggery), a healthy substitute for refined sugar.

The talipot palm soaring 100-ft high, native to the Andamans and the Malabar Coast has leaves that are made into fans and umbrellas and seeds that are turned into buttons and beads. A single leaf can shelter 20 men beneath it, and the tree dies after fruiting.

Swarming across the forest floor are the fearsomely armed rattans and canes, which have been exploited en masse for the making of furniture. Huge amounts are harvested from the forests of the Northeast, every year to produce light and long-lasting furniture and baskets.

Sago, a starch derived from the sago palm, is used as a staple in the diet of many people in Papua New Guinea.

But some palms are also in danger of extinction. And the usual suspects are deforestation, fragmentation, destruction of habitat, mining, conversion of farmland and urbanisation — developing properties called Swaying Palms, Whispering Palms and the like. The driveways of many “posh” housing societies are lined with ornamental palms. Palms are reluctant to regrow in areas where devastating habitat changes have taken place. The over-exploitation of rattans for use in furniture has led to a major decrease in the population of these species, affecting biodiversity and its markets. By some accounts, as of 2018, at least 110 species of palms are threatened with extinction.

There is one palm, however, that is at the centre of a raging controversy world over, regarded as sinner or saviour depending on your point of view. Ah, but the sinner label has not been given because this palm is intrinsically evil — it is because, according to many, we have turned it into an evil monster.

The palm in question is the multifaceted notorious oil palm — a native of West Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. Next week, we shall put the merits and demerits of its case up for scrutiny, for you to decide whether you love it or loathe it.

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