Palmyra Palm:Importance in Indian Agriculture

Palmyra tree is a tall and swaying tree well known as “Borassus flabellifer”. The word “Borassus” was derived from a Greek word and it means the leathery covering of the fruit and “flabellifer”, means fan-bearer. Palmyra palm tree belongs to the ‘palme’ family. Palakkad district of Kerala is popularly known as land of palmyra trees. Palmyra trees are known as the icon of this district and have a vast cultural, heritage and literary association. Many novels, stories and poems revolve around these trees. The Palmyra tree is the official tree of Tamil Nadu. In Tamil culture it is called karpaha , “nungu” “celestial tree”, and is highly respected because all its parts can be used. The Asian Palmyra palm is a symbol of Cambodia where it is a very common palm, found all over the country. It also grows near the Angkor Wat temple. In Indonesia the Palmyra tree is the symbol of South Sulawesi province. This plant has captured the imagination of Bengalis, especially in the words of Rabindranath Tagore whose nursery rhyme ‘Taal Gaach ek paye daariye, sab gaach chhariye, akaashete uki mare….’ literally tall tree standing on a single leg, surpassing all other trees, looking to the sky…. In Sahaj Path is a staple reading material in most of schools in West Bengal and Bangladesh.