Caryota cumingii (solitary fishtail palm, "Kujakuyashi")

Japanese name: クジャクヤシ （孔雀椰子）
Scientific name: Caryota cumingii

[Overview]
A single-trunked palm growing 12–18 m tall.
The trunk is cylindrical, 30 cm in diameter, and gray, with ring-shaped scars where leaves have fallen.
It has no spines.
The leaves are alternate at the top of the trunk and bipinnately compound, 4–6 m long including the petiole.
The leaflets are 10–30 cm long, broadly wedge-shaped like a fish's tail fin, thick, hard and pleated, with the upper edge irregularly and finely cut.
The petiole is about 60 cm long, thick and sturdy.
The flowers bloom when the trunk has finished growing and the life of the plant is nearing its end; the first inflorescence appears at the top of the trunk, followed in order by inflorescences below it, which bloom and fruit downward, and the plant dies after flowering several times.
There are male and female flowers, borne densely in large numbers on spadices that emerge from among the leaves and hang down, about 3 m long and sometimes as long as 6 m.
The male flowers are reddish and have 40 stamens; the female flowers are greenish.
The fruit is spherical, 2 cm or less in diameter, yellow at first, ripening to blackish brown and sometimes tinged with red.

[Uses]
Starch can be obtained from the trunk.
Sugar is obtained from the sap that comes from the flower buds, and syrup and palm wine are made from it.
The flower buds are eaten as a vegetable, and the fruit is also edible.
The trunk is used as building material and for other purposes, and the leaf fibers are used for rope, thatching, brushes, brooms and handicrafts.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed.
It can be grown outdoors in Okinawa, but to overwinter it, keep it in a bright place indoors so that the temperature stays at 10°C or higher.
It prefers sun to bright shade and fertile, well-drained soil.
For potted plants, from spring to autumn water thoroughly when the soil surface dries, and keep it on the dry side in winter.
For plants in the ground, rainfall is sufficient.
From spring to autumn, place slow-release fertilizer on the soil once every 2 months.
Pests and diseases include scale insects, spider mites and Perostatia disease.

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