Do you know that date palms are divided into male and female? The male specimen has a different kind of flowers, which makes it possible to distinguish it from the female "individual". From ancient times they knew that for a good harvest, male and female date palms are needed. For several dozen women - one man. One palm can produce a quarter ton of dates.

The palm tree is ideally suited for life in the desert: its trunk can protect not only from the heat, but also from the cold. Extra protection is provided by dead leaves. By the way, fresh palm leaves are very durable and residents of the corresponding latitudes make clothes out of them. Thus, people are well protected from the scorching sun and dust. In very hot weather, the palm tree grows only at night, resting during the day.

But how does a date palm in the desert manage without water? Fortunately, without water, it does not grow. The reality is that the date grows only where the groundwater comes quite close to the surface, and with its powerful, long roots the palm can reach them. It is surrounded by an oasis, to the delight of those traveling through arid areas. If you decide to grow a date palm at home, you don’t have to worry - in our latitudes, even in the greatest heat, the dates will feel great.

Of the five thousand varieties of dates, everything can be divided into three groups: dry, semi-dry and juicy. Naturally, juicy - the most expensive and delicious, but in many respects they are inferior to dry. The second ones are known for their good strengthening of the walls of blood vessels, possess antioxidant and antiradical activity.

On a Venezuelan peach palm, peaches, of course, do not grow. Its eighteen-meter trunk and even the leaves are covered with very sharp needle-like thorns, protecting ripening fruits from people and animals.

Egg-shaped bright red or orange-yellow fruits the size of a small peach or apricot hang down in huge bunches, similar to grapevines. The meaty outer part of the fruit tastes like a chestnut and if it is boiled in salt water, you get a tasty dish rich in vitamins. Sometimes these fruits are fried and eaten with molasses or sprinkled with sugar syrup. In Central and South America, peach palms are planted with whole plantations.

In Upper Egypt, a doom palm tree grows (in other places it is called the ginger palm). It differs from other palms by an interesting feature. On a tree 10-12 meters tall, 3-4 branches grow. Each of them ends with a bunch of fan-shaped leaves, between which flowers appear: on one tree - female, on the other - male. In female trees, flowers are replaced by large clusters of beautiful shiny yellow-brown fruits. In one bunch of them there are up to 200 pieces. Ginger palm is the most important source of nutrition for the poor in Egypt (they eat the mealy fibrous husk of the fruit, which tastes like gingerbread).

Doom palm - the only branching palm tree in the world

In the swampy forests and flooded lowlands of tropical America, Africa and Madagascar, a palm tree raffia grows, from the sweet juice of which wine is prepared. Raffia fruits and apical kidney are used as a vegetable, and oil is squeezed from the seeds.

Another kind of wine palm is yubey. It combines honey or wine, palm, elephant and Chilean wonderful. They grow in the mountains along the Pacific coast of Chile to an altitude of 1200 meters.

Their smooth 25-meter-long trunks with a diameter of about a meter serve as a source of sweet juice up to 400 liters from one adult tree, which, in turn, is used to make molasses (hence the name honey palm) and wine. The fruit is 4-5 centimeters long with edible flesh similar to a coconut. Leaves are used to make fiber, and also serve as roofing material.

The main source of vegetable oil in the tropics is the fruits of coconut and oil palm. Oil palm grows in western Equatorial Africa. On the trunk height of about 30 meters, bearing more than 150 three-meter cirrus leaves, hang brushes of drupes. One such brush consists of 600-800 fruits and weighs up to 25 kilograms. Fruit seeds contain about 50% of the so-called palm oil used to make margarine.

In Oceania, along with a coconut palm that provides milk and butter, a breadfruit grows. Bread are all types of trees of the genus Artocarpus mulberry family. They bear fruit “loaves” weighing up to 12 kg! Starch accumulates in the flesh of the oval fruit, turning as it ripens into ... dough. “If someone plantes a breadfruit, he will do more to feed his descendants than the farmer. all his life in the sweat of his face processing his field .. "- wrote James Cook.

Usually breadfruit trees bear fruit for 70-75 years. On one tree, 700-800 “loaves” ripen annually. Fruits are filled with sweetish pulp. Drinks are made from unripe fruits, and something similar to bread is made from ripe fruits. The fruits of the Indian breadfruit are impressive - up to a meter across! The branches could not withstand such a load, so the “loaves” grow directly on the trunk. The African trakulia bread tree has smaller fruits - up to half a meter in diameter and weighing up to 14 kg. In Madagascar, the patriarch of breadfruit survived - 20 m high, with a trunk girth of 50 m.

And from the starch of sago palm growing in New Guinea, make pancakes. A palm tree blooms in the 16th year of life; it is true that it is cut down before flowering, when the largest amount of starch is in its core. The core is removed, pressed through a small sieve onto a hot metal surface and made sago, from which the palm is called saga.

Without any treatment, you can use the milky juice of the milk tree itself - the Venezuelan galactodendron. In composition, it is close to cow's milk and resembles cream with sugar! And if you boil the juice, then a tasty curd mass is formed.

In Madagascar, you can admire a stunning Begonia family tree with bizarre fruits. It is called sausage, because on its branches there are many brown randomly hanging on the long stalks of sausage-shaped fruits. Each such "sausage" can be about half a meter long and 10 cm in diameter. However, the Japanese Aucubu is also called that. Its leathery leaves are covered with golden yellow spots and dots, partly resembling pieces of fat on a cut of sausage. The similarity, however, is quite distant.

Off the east coast of Africa is the focus of strange, peculiar forms of plant life. Here on the rocky slopes of the mountains you can find a cucumber tree (Dendrosicyos socotrana) - a plant with spiky wrinkled leaves, spiky fruits, similar to ordinary cucumbers and a thick trunk swollen from milky juice, consisting of soft whitish cellular tissue that is easily cut with a knife. This is the only tree in the pumpkin family.

On the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, there is also a palm tree, the thickened juice of nuts of which, by its taste, almost does not differ from butter.
There are plants - “lollipops”. For example, the leaves of the Paraguayan stevia shrub are more than 300 times sweeter than sugar, and the leaves of Mexican sugar grass are 1000 times. The red berries of the herbaceous plant Tomato locus of the African savannah are sweeter than sugar 2000 times, and the red berries of Dioscorephillum cumminisia from the forests of Nigeria and other West African countries - 3000 times. In West Africa, the sweetest plant is growing - the Ketemph shrub, which contains the substance thomatin, which is 100,000 times more sweet than sugar!

On the islands of Oceania there is a kind of tropical trees - “cakes”. Yellowish fruits grow in abundance on them, which taste like sweet cakes.

Candy tree, or Japanese raisin tree, is a representative of the buckthorn family, hailing from Japan and China - sweet jovia. To be precise, they are actually dry, and the taste of this plant-based candy is an amateur one: it resembles sour raisins inedible, but the twisted axis of the inflorescence holding them is juicy and fleshy. Each tree can produce 35 kg of “sweets”, not sweet, with a rum flavor.

In the forests, the calyr-kanda plant grows, called in the local dialect “deceive the stomach”. After eating 1-2 leaves of it, a person feels full for a whole week, despite the fact that there are no nutrients in the leaves. Due to the ability to create the illusion of satiety, tablets and infusions from leaves of caliber kanda are recommended for people who want to lose weight.

Such a plant as a palm tree represents exultation, the solar principle, fame and honesty. The straight trunk of a palm symbolizes triumph, blessing and victory. The constancy of the palm tree in its irremovable foliage, constant greenery has given occasion to connect the strength of the tree with the symbol of victory. Not for nothing that the palm branch has long been awarded to the winner along with a laurel wreath. The palm of the peoples of the territories in which it grows is a tree of life, self-reproducing as if androgynous.

The image of a palm tree without fruits symbolizes the masculine principle and in many cultures is associated with the phallic symbol - the basis of male power. A palm tree with dates symbolizes the feminine beginning and fertility.
  The palm tree, both young and old, bearing a large number of fruits became a symbol of prosperity and longevity in old age.

Different countries endow the palm with their own symbolism, as in China the palm stands for dignity, fertility and retirement, in Arabia the palm is a tree of life. In Christianity, the palm tree characterizes the righteous, immortality, the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem, the divine blessing, paradise, and the triumph of the martyr before death. Separately, palm branches denote triumph and glory, victory over death, sin, and resurrection. Early Catholicism associated a palm tree with a burial and ranked this plant as a symbol of the person who made the pilgrimage. In Egypt, the palm tree is counted among calendar trees, which let out a new branch only once a month. In Greece, the palm is the emblem of Apollo Delos and Delphi.

What do we residents of mid-latitudes know about palm trees and their fruits? In our stores there are dates (already in the form of dried fruits) and coconuts. We call the latter nuts, although they are not. Botanists attribute coconuts to berries. Thus, closer to watermelon than to hazelnuts, despite its hard shell. But there are other fruits of palm trees, in addition to coconut and dates. And also edible. What kind? We will talk about them in this article. And, by the way, bananas do not grow on palm trees, but are fruits of perennial grass. These are such tropical wonders.

Coconut palm

When the Portuguese first saw the berries of this tree, they had no doubt that it was a nut. A delicious fleshy core, hidden under a hard-wood-like shell, caught their attention. For the “shaggy” hairs on the fetus, the Portuguese christened it “coco” - “monkey”. And so it happened: in English, overseas berry was called coconut. And the name was literally translated into Russian: Scientists consider Malaysia to be the birthplace of the berry, from where the fruits, which are excellently kept afloat, spread by sea currents throughout the tropical region. Why is the coconut palm called the universal nurse? Yes, because wood is a valuable material. Its leaves serve as a roof for huts. The fruit of the coconut palm at different stages of ripeness gives juice, milk, oil, tasty pulp. The farm uses even a hard shell "nut". Various products are made from it.

Coconut palm fruit: universal “breadwinner”

“Hairy Nuts” form the basis of the welfare of many Pacific people. When they are less than five months old, they contain coconut juice. It is sweet and sour in taste and perfectly quenches thirst. Juice contains a lot of nutrients. As it ripens, drops appear in this liquid. Juice turns into milk. This fragrant, sweet emulsion is widely used in cooking, cosmetology and traditional medicine. The milk is left to “sour” - it turns out something like sour cream. They make oil out of it. During the period of maximum maturity, when the mass of the coconut palm fruit reaches one and a half to two kilograms, flesh is formed inside the shell. It is scraped off the walls and a lot of delicious dishes are prepared from it. It can be stored in dried form for years. This is the one we use for topping cakes.

Date palm

This short tree is scientifically called Phoenix. The palm began to be cultivated in ancient times - in Mesopotamia, in the 4th millennium. In various regions, it produces hybrids, and not always with edible fruits. What we are used to eating is the dried palm fruit Phoenix dactylifera. This is a squat shrub with cirrus leaves, which are metamorphosed into sharp thorns on the base. The fruits are very high in calories (220-280 kcal per hundred grams). In addition, when dried, they can be stored and transported for a long time. In India, from the local type of palm tree Phoenix silvestris make "tari" - sweet wine. But the date of Robelin from Laos, which gives black fruits, is grown as an ornamental houseplant. In Europe, the Canary Islands grows Phoenix canariensis Chabaud. This tall - up to 15 meters - tree gives small amber fruits.

Peach palm

The birthplace of this tall - up to 30 meters - tree is the jungle of the Amazon basin. Local Native American tribes have long cultivated this plant, since not only the fruits of palm trees are edible, but also the stem cleared of bark. Leaves were used for roofing huts. The scientific name of the palm is Bactris gasipaes, and the popular name is “peach,” because of the round pink-orange fruits. They taste, of course, different from Mediterranean fruits. They hang in long clusters of hundreds. The fruit has a thin peel and powdery, sweetish flesh. The stone is large, with a pointed apex. Indians fruits are cooked in salted water for several hours and consumed with sauce as a side dish, as we are potatoes. Local vodka is also made from the pulp. Since it is dry, it is ground and added to flour for various baking. There is only one minus for the peach palm. Harvesting a rich crop is made difficult by daggers sharp, black and long spikes in the upper part of the trunk.

Seychelles palm

The fruit of the tree with the scientific name Lodoicea maldivica is truly a champion. Ripening, it reaches eighteen kilograms in weight, and its dimensions are impressive - more than a meter in circumference. Local residents can not complain about crop failure. Stable about seventy such weights brings one Seychelles palm. The fruit, however, ripens for six years. But don't wait so long! One year old fruits are eaten. It is at this age that the pulp has the consistency of jelly, because later it hardens and becomes strong, like ivory. This delicacy was previously very much appreciated. Europeans called this "nut" sea coconut (coco de mer) and paid crazy money for it. The fruit of the Seychelles palm was endowed with magical properties and was considered a panacea for all diseases. No less surprising is the tree itself. Unlike coconut palms, Seychelles stand unbendingly in a gale-force wind like stone columns. And they begin to bear fruit only when they reach the age of one hundred years. When it rains, under the crown of the Seychelles palm tree you can hide, as under the most reliable roof. The leaves of the tree form grooves-water catchers. Streams of rain roll down to the cuttings at the trunk and then along it to the roots.

Ginger palm

The name of the tree speaks for itself. But it’s not the fruits of the palms that taste, but the fibrous mealy husk. Although the poor live on dry clusters. This palm tree has one feature that distinguishes it from others. A tree can have three to four branches. Each of them ends with fan-shaped leaves, among which flowers appear. Not all of them turn into fruits, because ginger palm trees come in different genders. Only females give people clusters of brilliant beautiful light brown fruits. In South Egypt, this tree is called particularly poetic - "palm doom."

Acai

The birthplace of the tree is the north of Brazil, the modern state of Para. Acai palm fruits are small, round, up to one and a half centimeters in diameter. Like figs, berries come in two varieties: greenish and dark purple. They taste like raspberries or blackberries with a touch of walnut. But this does not distinguish acai fruits from other berries of palm trees.

They contain the same amount of protein as in cow's milk. In total, a handful of small fruits can satisfy the hunger of an adult: the product has 182 kcal. High in them and the content of iron, vitamins B and E. At the same time, very low cholesterol. Acai palm fruits are recommended for athletes to use, as they promote muscle regeneration and are also prescribed for anemic patients. They are consumed both fresh and heat-treated. Liqueurs and wines are made from fruits, and salads are made from kidneys.

Serenoa

This tree from Southeast Asia has other names. Most often it is called a dwarf or creeping palm. The tree brings berries 2-3 cm in size. Outwardly, the fruits of a creeping palm tree are similar to large olives. Serena berries are very healthy.

What are palm trees? What types of palm trees grow on our Black Sea coast? Is it possible to grow them at home? Which of them can be grown independently from seeds? We will try to answer these questions. For starters - general information.

The leaves of palm trees are characterized by a feathery and fan type. Leaves on petioles are arranged spirally. Flowers are unisexual or bisexual. Fruits - drupes or nuts.

Palms grown at home from seeds are in a rosette condition for a long time, and only after the rosette reaches the required diameter does the stem grow in height. This feature makes it possible to contain young, grown from palm seeds in indoor conditions. The following types of palm trees are most suitable for this: Canarian date, capitate butia, palmetto saber, low chambers (squat), filamentous Washington, Fortune trachicarpus.

Canary date

Latin name - Phoenix canariensis Chahand. This plant is dioecious, evergreen. It develops like a tree, but looks more like a large wide bush 10-20 m tall, with a massive, unbranched, false trunk, covered with the bases of old leaves.

In open ground on the Black Sea coast, the palm reaches a height of 12-15 m. The leaves are large, up to 4 m. There are sharp needle-shaped spines along the edges of the leaf petiole.

This palm tree blooms in the summer-autumn period. Male inflorescences up to 2 m long, female inflorescences shorter. The fruit is ovoid, yellowish-brown, 2.5 cm long, with coarse flesh, slightly edible. Propagated by seeds.

Edible date

Canarian dates should not be confused with edible palm dates (Phoenix dactylifera). Unfortunately, seeds extracted from the fruits of an edible date do not germinate well - after all, before the dates reach the consumer, they significantly lose their germination capacity. In addition, the temperature necessary for germination, 20-25 ° C, can only be maintained in greenhouses and greenhouses.

The city of Basra in southern Iraq is considered the world capital of edible dates. 420 varieties of this species are concentrated here. The Arabian wisdom says that “the palm should stand in the water with its base, and drown with the top in the hot rays of the sun.”

Date palmate - dioecious plant. The ancient Egyptians and Greeks hung several male panicles inside the crowns, sprinkling pollen, because without artificial insemination female specimens were without fruit.

Butia capitate

Latin name - Butia capitata. This type of palm tree is native to Brazil. It grows in mountainous areas on sandy soils. The trunk of the butia has a characteristic capitate thickening at the base, gradually tapering upward.

The appearance of new leaves begins in April and lasts until the end of September. During the growing season, 4 to 9 leaves are formed, and each lives up to 7 years.

The palm tree is beautiful with its openwork crown, lush inflorescences and fruits.

In the open ground of the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus, butium enters flowering and fruiting from 10-12 years of age. Indoor rarely blooms.

In the butia, the seed is roundly oblong, pointed at the ends, up to 20 mm long and 10 mm wide, with three distinct sutures. In the lower part there are three rounded pores, covered with loose cork tissue - this is the place where the embryo emerges.

  Seeds contain about 60% liquid coconut oil. The fruits of butia are used in food raw and for the manufacture of jams and liquors.

Before germinating the butia seeds, it is recommended that they be stratified for a long time in wet sand or peat. Mechanical stratification is possible - filing of seed shells or careful destruction of corked tissue with a sharp metal object.

Freshly harvested seeds germinate after stratification for 35-45 days. In some cases, the process may take up to 24 months.

Butia capitate is frost-resistant - it withstands temperature drops to -10 ° C. Drought resistant. It grows well on sandy soils.

In room conditions, butia requires regular watering, and in the summer, the plant must be fed with flower fertilizers once every two weeks. For it should use the soil mixture for palm trees, sold in stores.

Sabal Palmetto

This type of palm tree (lat. Sabal palmetto) comes from North America. Its single trunk in open ground reaches a height of 20 m. Fan leaves.

Inflorescences up to 2 m long. The fruit is a black spherical drupe.

On the Black Sea coast, palmetto sabal blooms and produces viable seeds, which usually germinate within four months.

Stratification at a temperature of 35 ° (about one month) reduces the germination time. Soaking in hot water (approximately 90 ° C), and especially removing the cap over the embryo, also accelerates seed germination. At home, young leaves that have not yet been opened are used as food for vegetables, they are called "palm cabbage!"

Chamerops squat

The botanical name for this species of palm is Chamaerops humilis. Came to Europe from Africa. It has been cultivated in greenhouses for over 300 years. This is a bushy palm with several trunks 2-3 m high, growing from a common base. In the Sochi arboretum of the Research Institute of Urban Ecology there are specimens with 7-10 or more trunks in the bush.

A palm tree is growing slowly. During the summer, forms up to 7 leaves, which usually live 7 years. It blooms in May and June. The fruit is a drupe, ripens in November-December.

The palm is drought-resistant, undemanding to the soil. Propagated by seeds.

Seeds in the pulp of the fetus do not germinate. After removing the flesh sprout for 2 months at room temperature. Removing the lid causes accelerated seed germination in 11 days.

Washingtonia filamentous or filamentous

The Latin name is Washingtonia filifera. She hails from the southwest of North America. This is a very beautiful fan palm. The trunk in the homeland reaches a height of 30 m. Fan leaves with delicate delicate filaments hanging between leaf segments.

Complex inflorescences. The flowers are bisexual with a strong odor. The fruit is an undisclosed drupice.

It blooms and bears fruit abundantly on the Black Sea coast, the fruits ripen in December. This is one of the fastest growing palm trees.

Easily propagated by seeds. Germination of 80-90%. At a temperature of 35 ° C in greenhouse conditions, seedlings appear on the seventh day. Under normal conditions - within a month.

This type of palm tree will look good in spacious rooms - halls, offices, greenhouses. Care is simple, but there is one feature - in winter it will feel more comfortable in cool conditions. If you cannot maintain the temperature in the room no higher than 20 ° С (better than 15-18 ° С), then the dishes with the plant should be kept in a pan with water and sprayed daily. At high room temperatures and dry air, it can drop leaves.

Seeds remain viable for up to 5 years.

Trachicarpus Fortune

This type of palm tree (lat. Trachycarpus fortunei) grows up to 10 m at home, in China, Burma, Japan. At the top of the trunk forms a bunch of fan-shaped leaves, petioles of which reach a length of 0.5 to 1.5 m. Flowers are unisexual, dioecious , collected in large paniculate inflorescences. The fruit is a drupe. Fruits abundantly from 20 years. It blooms in May, the fruits ripen in December and January.

This is the most frost-resistant of all fan palm trees.

It is undemanding to the soil. Easily propagated by seeds. Seeds germinate within a month.

Indoor young plants are recommended to be transshipped into larger pots once a year. This accelerates their growth and makes it possible to remove rotten and dried parts of the root. All transplantation work must be carried out in the spring, at the beginning of the growing season.

Trachicarpus Fortune tolerates transplantation well in adulthood.

In many places of the Black Sea coast it gives abundant self-seeding and runs wild.

Botanical name: Acai, or Euterpe (Euterpe) - a genus of tropical trees of the palm family (Arecaceae), growing in the humid forests of the Amazon region. One of the most valuable types of palm trees, the edible fruits of which have high nutritional qualities.

Acai homeland:  Brazil.

Lighting:  photophilous.

The soil:  moist and swampy soils along river banks.

Watering:  hygrophilous.

Maximum tree height:  30 m

Tree life expectancy:  45 -65 years old.

Landing:  propagated by seeds.

Biological description of acai palm

Acai is a powerful tree with a height of 12 to 30 m, with several thin strong stems growing from one seed and having a common root system. After the death of old trunks to replace them, young shoots grow, and in one place 4-6 trunks of different ages can grow simultaneously.

The root system of the palm tree is adapted to exist in conditions of periodic flooding and has air roots (pneumotophors), which allow, if necessary, to extract nutrients directly from the rising water.

Acai leaves are pinnately dissected, up to 3 m long, with drooping segments, green with a reddish tint, collected in a rosette at the top of the trunk. The flowers are small, yellowish, very numerous, collected in large, panicled inflorescences hanging down.

What are the properties of acai berries?

Acai fruits (see photo below) are juicy drupes of purple-black or dark green in diameter up to 2.5 cm, collected in huge branched clusters of 500-900 pcs. In appearance they resemble grapes or blueberries, differing from them in a much thinner layer of pulp and a large seed enclosed in a hard shell. The taste of berries resembles raspberries or blackberries with an original nutty touch. 4-7 kg of fruits are removed from one palm tree, during the season, from July to December, 2 crops have time to ripen on the tree.

The natural habitat of acai is swamps and floodplains in the central part of the South American continent, from Brazil and Peru to Belize. The most common are two types:

Eutherpa edible (E. Edulis)

Eutherpa vegetable, or cabbage palm (E. oleracea)

The latter at a young age can be grown as a houseplant.

Where is Amazonian grape used?

The tree is widely used by the indigenous people of the Amazon. In some areas, for example, in the Brazilian province of Para, where there are especially many palm trees of this species, the processing of their fruits and wood is carried out on an industrial scale and forms the basis of the region’s economy.

The fruits and tasty core of the trunks, which is considered a treat among the locals, are eaten. In addition, young leaves and palm leaf buds are used in cooking here, they are eaten raw and boiled. The core of the trunks are more often obtained from the eutherpa edible (E. Edulis).

Acai fruits, with good taste and high nutritional value, are appreciated not only at home, but also in other countries. Due to the delicate texture and ease of damage, the crop is harvested only by hand. Berries are stored no more than 5 hours after harvest, and are consumed fresh only in places of natural palm growth. Here they are added to ice cream and desserts, used to make various drinks. So, a cocktail made from a mixture of mashed fruits and milk in Brazil is called acai juice, this tonic and nutritious drink is very popular and is sold everywhere in the country. In other regions of the world, the product is delivered after processing.

At home, this type of palm tree has not only food use. Its thin and durable trunks, which are not damaged by insects, are used for the manufacture of rafters and beams, hats are made from leaves, mats and baskets are woven, roofs are covered with them. Fruit mass is used for livestock feed, added to soil mixtures for plants.

Benefits of Acai Berry

The Indians of Amazonia call the Acai palm "the tree of life" and from ancient times know about its healing qualities. The fruits are widely used in the nutrition of local tribes, sometimes making up to 40% of their diet. At the same time, it was noted that in areas where acai berries are consumed in large quantities, people, despite a long stay without clothes in the sun, practically do not meet cancer and other skin diseases, they look younger than their years and for a long time remain healthy and energetic. This fact interested scientists, and in 2004 data were published on a study of the composition and beneficial properties of acai berries, until then little known in the world.

The research results were sensational. The fruits turned out to be champions in the content of antioxidants among plants, their number is two times more than in blueberries, ten times more than in grapes and thirty three times more than in red wine. Vitamins C, K, A, and E included in acai berries, almost all B vitamins, plant steroids and fibers, vital minerals (potassium, magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, etc.) also determine the high nutritional value of the product. Up to 50% of its volume is occupied by the polyunsaturated fatty acids omega-3 and omega-6, whose role in maintaining human health can hardly be overestimated.

It is not surprising that since the beginning of our century, palm trees have been cultivated in many countries, and its fruits have been actively promoted as "the world's number 1 superfood." This characterization of the "Amazonian grape" (another common name for acai) was first given by the famous American television presenter Oprah Winfrey. And although the berry is not a panacea for all diseases and does not lead to instant healing, the benefits of acai in the prevention of atherosclerosis, arrhythmias and coronary heart disease, lowering cholesterol and high blood pressure, increasing mental and physical performance have been proven by numerous scientific studies. There is evidence of the anti-cancer effect of insoluble fiber in the pulp of fruits. In addition, acai products are high-calorie (100 g contains up to 185 kcal), contain a lot of protein and fat, which helps to build muscle and is used in the nutrition of athletes.

Acai is currently becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. Since the shelf life of fresh berries is extremely short, they are not transportable and are sold in the form of juices, mashed potatoes, fruit smoothies and yoghurts, soluble powders that can be added to various drinks, as well as tablets.

Healthy Acai Oil

Oil is made from fruits, which, thanks to its regenerating, regenerating, nourishing and moisturizing effect, is a valuable cosmetic product. Acai oil is obtained from fruits by cold pressing, which allows you to save almost 100% of nutrients. Its polyunsaturated fatty acids, natural antioxidants and vitamins provide a high antioxidant potential of the product. A distinctive feature of the oil is its thermal stability, therefore it has a long shelf life and can be added to other, less stable cosmetic oils as a stabilizing antioxidant additive.

Palm trees are the most useful for humans!

Different shapes and fruits palm trees  , useful to humans, cause surprise and admiration! Exactly natural food   most benefit the human body, since it, in fact, is itself a product of nature.

Asai palm - the most beneficial fruits for athletes

The homeland of Acai is northern Brazil. Acai palm trees grow most abundantly in the Brazilian state of Para, not by chance one of
  The name of the palm is Para palm.

Acai palm   possess graceful thin trunks and reach a height of 25, sometimes 30 meters.

They grow in large clusters (from 4 to 25 trees
  in one place), while in each cluster trees of different ages are represented - when old trunks die off, young shoots take their place.
  Acai leaves are large, long, pinnate.
  The flowers are medium-sized, numerous, yellowish, collected in large inflorescences hanging down.

Fetus   small, round, from 1 to 1.5 cm in diameter. The color is dark purple, at full maturity it is almost black (in the red palm variety), or dark green (in the white palm variety).

Red palms are more common than white.

Asai has an unusual taste reminiscent of   taste of raspberries or blackberries with a touch of nut.   High-calorie - in 100g - 182 kcal, contains the same amount of protein as cow's milk, and even ahead of it in energy value and fat content.
Especially rich in high iron, vitamins B1 and E.
  It is characterized by low cholesterol, strengthens the immune system,
  promotes   muscle regeneration   which is especially important   for sportsmanat has a general tonic effect, recommended   anemic patients.

Application range   acai quite wide. The fruits are eaten fresh. They also make juices, wines, liquors, cocktails, ice cream, various desserts, with the addition of sugar, honey and other fruits.

Acai is used for baking and for making various sauces.

Are edible and palm buds   - they make salads. Palm leaves are used to cover houses, bark - for weaving mats, bags, baskets, hats.

Acai wood is valued throughout the world. The processing of acai fruit and wood is fundamental to the industry in this region.
  Some time asaand   remained a fruit exclusively of local consumption, then, due to its extraordinary nutritional properties, it gave impetus to the real “health boom” , spread throughout Brazil and began to successfully conquer Western and European countries.

Asai is part of Xan Vitan Mangosteen Juice ,

Butia is the most jelly palm.

This genus of palm trees is called   "Jelly palms" , because from their fruits they prepare very tasty jelly, or "Apricot palm trees" . Syrups and jellies are made from the fruits of butia. The fruits of these palm trees are also used for the production of alcoholic beverages. This interesting genus of palm trees was named by the famous Italian palm specialist Odoardo Betzari (1843-1920).

Origin: South American continent. Under natural conditions, these palm trees reach a height of about 5 m.

Appearance: at the base of the petioles, this cirrus palm tree has thorns. Densely cirrus leaves   butia   they bend elegantly, while its green-blue feathers remain very stiff.

About 15 species of butia are known. At the base of the stem are clearly visible remains of fallen leaves.

Inflorescences more than 1 m long, highly branched. A trunk up to 50 cm in diameter ends with a crown of large cirrus dissected leaves. Seeds contain about 60% oil.

Leaf petioles of adult leaves are armed with spikes, young ones are covered with thick felt. Widely used in decorative gardening.

Mexican Blue Palm - The Most Armed Palm

or armed brachea - Brahea armata, it is an evergreen fan palm with a height of 3 to 15 m with leaves that have a silver-bluish tint from the visible wax coating, they are split into long lobes.

Beautiful, frost-resistant   palm brachea   grows in Mexico and California. It has a gray trunk, slightly swollen at the base, with traces of old leaves, and very attractive unusual blue-green fan leaves that are located on top of the trunk.

Yellowish-white flowers collected in long give a special charm   panicles on branches which significantly exceed the length of leaf branches, and are able to reach 4.5 meters in length.

The flowering period is spring-summer. Fruits - round brown edible berries up to 2 cm in diameter.
  At home, this palm tree grows in arid areas on infertile soils along with cacti.

Peach palm - the most palm beautiful fruits

In Venezuelan   peach palm   (lat. Bactris gasipaes) peaches, of course, do not grow. Its eighteen-meter trunk and even the leaves are covered with very sharp needle-like thorns, protecting ripening fruits from people and animals.

A straight, slender palm tree with a height of 20-30 m with long cirrus leaves 2.4-3.6 m long. The fruits are yellow, orange or red, hanging bunches of 50-100 pieces.   They are cup-shaped, conical or oval in shape. Under the thin skin is a sweet yellow-orange flesh with a long conical seed.

Egg-shaped bright red or orange-yellow fruits the size of a small peach or apricot hang down in huge bunches, similar to grapevines.

The meaty outer part of the fruit tastes like a chestnut and if it is boiled in salt water, you get a tasty dish, rich in vitamins.   Sometimes these fruits are fried and eaten with molasses or sprinkled with sugar syrup.

In Central and South America, peach palms are planted with huge plantations.

This straight slender prickly palm tree develops several thin stems on which clusters of fruits develop. The needle-shaped spikes are located in the whorls and along the trunk.

It forms annually four to six large bundles of fruits, each weighing up to   11 kilogramsm . Fruits up to 5 centimeters long, red, orange or yellow, reminiscent of ripe peaches with their coloring, from which comes the English (“peach palm”) and the Russian name of this tree.

The thorns with which this extraordinary palm tree protects its fruits from animals serve the Indians for application   tattoos  with which they decorate their body. In Amazonia, the peach palm tree is called peihuara and it is one of the most important foods in the Indians' nutrition system.

It is difficult to lift a brush of ripe fruits to a strong person, and each tree carries several such brushes. A piece of twelve fruits is enough to completely saturate an adult.

The fruits of the peach palm have a powdery flesh and resemble mature peaches. They are tasty and nutritious, there are many   starch, fats, vitamins "A" and "C" . From the fruits prepare desserts, drinks and wine, eat fresh. They even make flour and butter.

Fruits are boiled in salt water, peeled and pitted, eaten with mayonnaise or cheese, and also fried. Boiled peach palm trees are sold as a snack on the streets of Costa Rica.

The core of young palm shoots is also eaten by residents Panama  . It tastes like celery stalks. This part of the palm is consumed fresh or boiled, mixed with an egg and used as a filling for casseroles.

Peach palm leaves are used to feed pigs and chickens. Hollow trunks of palm trees serve as gutters for the flow of water, as pipes or planters for flowers.

These fruits are used in traditional medicine. from headaches and abdominal pains.

In Panama, the fruits of peach palm trees serve as food for many species. parrots  including those listed in “Red book”   and are endangered.

The fruits of this palm tree are harvested in Panama from September to December, and this tree gives the richest harvest in October and November.

On one palm, up to thirteen brushes of such fruits can grow. Palm tree blooms twice a year. If the soil is moist enough from a peach palm in Panama, you can get two crops a year.

Fruit brushes are becoming increasingly difficult to reach as the palm grows tall, so I use special tools to harvest Panamanians to pick these brushes and make these delicate fruits fall to the ground as soft as possible.

There are peach palms in Costa Rica   fifty - one hundred le t. The ripe fruits of this tree are kept fresh for a very short time; they begin to mold three to five days after harvest. In stores, these fruits are usually sold in canned form.

Probably the title of the strangest palm on the planet can be awarded to a ginger palm

(Hyphaene thebaica). At 10 meter   ginger palm tree have branches , most often no more than 3-6, while ordinary palms do not form them.

Upper Egypt grows   doom palm, in other places it is called ginger or gingerbread palm . It differs from other palms by an interesting feature. On a tree 10-12 meters tall, 3-6 branches grow. Each of them ends with a bunch of fan-shaped leaves, between which flowers appear: on one tree - female, on the other - male.

In female branches, flowers are replaced by large clusters of beautiful edible shiny yellow - brown fruits. In one bunch there are up to   200 pieces . Ginger palm - the most important source of nutrition for the poor in Egypt, they eat the fibrous powdery husk of the fruit, which tastes like gingerbread.

Fruits doom palm trees   enclosed in a smooth shell, round, yellowish or brown in color, sweet and pleasant, have a bread taste. A thin, dry brown peel turns into molasses, cakes and sweets. Unripe fruits are also edible.

Sprouts of germinated seeds are also eaten as a vegetable. In Egypt, the fruits are sold by street vendors, and are popular with children gnawing at his sweet-sour, stiff, fibrous flesh under a shiny, hard skin.

The fresh pulp of these fruits is eaten, but most often the fruits are dried, they can be used as seasoning. From the dried and chopped fruits, a drink is prepared that is drunk chilled, it has a unique taste and aroma.

Doom drink commonly known as   prostatitis prophylaxis   (2 cups Duma drink during the day). Has antibacterial properties - stabilizes intestinal bacterial balance,   improves bowel function, and also facilitates gas excretion from the intestine.

Doom drink   stabilizes   arterial pressure recommended for patients suffering hypertension.

This palm was considered   sacred  among the ancient Egyptians and its seeds were found in the tombs of many pharaohs. On September 24, 2007, it was announced that a group of Egyptian archaeologists led by Zaha Havas discovered eight doom palm fruit baskets buried in 3000 BC   to the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.