Jump to content
  • WELCOME GUEST

    It looks as if you are viewing PalmTalk as an unregistered Guest.

    Please consider registering so as to take better advantage of our vast knowledge base and friendly community.  By registering you will gain access to many features - among them are our powerful Search feature, the ability to Private Message other Users, and be able to post and/or answer questions from all over the world. It is completely free, no “catches,” and you will have complete control over how you wish to use this site.

    PalmTalk is sponsored by the International Palm Society. - an organization dedicated to learning everything about and enjoying palm trees (and their companion plants) while conserving endangered palm species and habitat worldwide. Please take the time to know us all better and register.

    guest Renda04.jpg

is bottle palm fruit edible?


treelover

Recommended Posts

hyophorbe means pig food, I don't know anything else but I wouldn't eat anything with that name :bemused:

Edit: Palmpedia claims it's mildly poisonous so I wouldn't try it

Edited by spike
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

I have my theory about why Hyophorbe got the name which means pig food. Apart from the fact they actually would have fed them to pigs, back in the 1600s to 1800s in Mauritius and Reunion which are very remote outposts, everythings value would have been  connected to how it helped you to survive. Food would have been your biggest concern. The islands did have food shortages, and the population eventually ate almost all the palms out of existence. ( Also the Dodo and the land turtles that used to be there.) There are officially no wild populations of Acanthophoenix rubra in existence, although I did see some volunteers returning from cultivated specimens in rainforest in Reunion. The same is true of Dictyosperma which is extinct in the wild in Reunion, and almost extinct in Mauritius. Hyophorbe palm hearts however we’re not really palatable. Hyophorbe indica which is only from Reunion is critically endangered by loss of habitat, was known as the Poison palm. It probably wasn’t poisonous but it did taste bitter. So you can imagine being a hungry slave in the 1700s working a sugar cane field trying to find a palm to eat in the forest, looking for a good palm to eat (Acanthophoenix) and on finding only Hyophorbe calling them “pig food” because they were just unfit for a human meal and not what you were looking for. They had no value. I wonder how many Hyophorbe americaulis were just cleared and fed to pigs. 
 

However this doesn’t answer whether bottle palm seeds are edible. I personally would be very cautious. 

  • Upvote 1

Millbrook, "Kinjarling" Noongar word meaning "Place of Rain", Rainbow Coast, Western Australia 35S. Warm temperate. Csb Koeppen Climate classification. Cool nights all year round.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...