Caryota mitis explained

Caryota mitis, known as the clustering fishtail palm or fishtail palm, is a species of palm native to Tropical Asia from India to Java to southern China, now sparingly naturalized in southern Florida and in parts of Africa and Latin America.^{[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]} The species was originally described from Vietnam in 1790. In Florida, it grows in hummocks and in disturbed wooded areas.^[6]

Botany

Caryota mitis has clustered stems up to 10 m (33 feet) tall and 15 cm (6 inches) in diameter.^[7] Leaves can be up to 3 m (10 feet) long. Each leaf is made of many pairs of leaflets shaped like tail fins that give this palm its name.^[8]

Flowers are purple and grow on hanging spikes.^[8] Its fruits turn dark purple or red when they are ripe, they are harmful to humans.^{[9] [10]} The tree slowly deteriorates not long after it bears fruit.^[8]

Uses

Cultivated mainly as an ornament plant in Cambodia, where it is named tunsaé töch, traditional healers burn the heaps of felted hairs from the leaves' axils to treat ill limbs of patients.^[11]

Its trunk pith can be extracted to make a kind of flour that has similar properties like sago.^[8]

In Cochinchine, Vietnam, this plant were used as a wedding gate in the past before 2000s

Toxicity

The fruit of C. mitis is saturated with raphides, sharp, needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate. The raphides are strong irritants that cause damage and later itching upon contact with skin, and if ingested, the mouth. This is a result of the physical structure of the raphides, and not any chemical reaction.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Berendsohn, W.G., A. K. Gruber & J. A. Monterrosa Salomón. 2012. Nova Silva Cuscatlanica. Árboles nativos e introducidos de El Salvador. Parte 2: Angiospermae – Familias M a P y Pteridophyta. Englera 29(2): 1–300.
2. Idárraga-Piedrahita, A., R. D. C. Ortiz, R. Callejas Posada & M. Merello. (eds.) 2011. Flora de Antioquia: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares 2: 9–939. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín.
3. Linares, J. L. 2003 [2005]. Listado comentado de los árboles nativos y cultivados en la república de El Salvador. Ceiba 44(2): 105–268.
4. Molina Rosito, A. 1975. Enumeración de las plantas de Honduras. Ceiba 19(1): 1–118.
5. ORSTOM. 1988. List of Vascular Plants of Gabon with Synonymy, Herbier National du Gabon, Yaounde.
6. Wunderlin, R. P. 1998. Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida i–x, 1–806. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
7. Web site: Caryota mitis . n.d. . Flora of North America . eFloras . 8 February 2014.
8. Web site: Tan . Ria . October 2016 . Fishtail palm . Wild Singapore . 3 September 2023.
9. Loureiro, João de. Flora Cochinchinensis 2: 569–570. 1790.
10. Web site: Caryota mitis . n.d. . Flora of China . eFloras . 8 February 2014.
11. Book: Dy Phon . Pauline . Plants Utilised In Cambodia/Plants utilisees au Cambodge . 2000 . Imprimerie Olympic . Phnom Penh . 136. Pauline Dy Phon .
12. Snyder . D S. Hatfield . G M . Lampe . K F . Examination of the itch response from the raphides of the fishtail palm Caryota mitis . Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology . April 1979 . 48 . 2 . 287–292 . 10.1016/0041-008x(79)90035-8. 473178. 1979ToxAP..48..287S . 2027.42/23600 . free .