Livistona chinensis var. subglobosa (fountain palm, "Biro")

Japanese name: ビロウ （蒲葵、檳榔）
Scientific name: Livistona chinensis var. subglobosa

[Overview]
An evergreen, single-trunked palm that grows near the coast in the subtropics.
The trunk is erect, growing to about 15 m tall and 40–60 cm in diameter.
The trunk has irregular ring-shaped markings.
The leaves are 1–2 m across and palmately divided to moderately or deeply lobed; the lobes are pointed at the tip, and each splits further into two lobes that hang down.
The petiole is 1.5–1.8 m long and has backward-pointing spines along its edge.
The petiole is triangular in cross section.
A large panicle about 1 m long emerges from the leaf axils and bears many flowers.
The flowers are bisexual, about 4 mm long, yellowish green, and have a distinctive odor.
The flowers have 3 sepals and 3 petals.
There are 6 stamens, which are shorter than the petals.
The fruit is an elliptical drupe about 1.8 cm long that ripens to greenish black.

[Uses]
In warm regions it is planted as a street tree and in parks.
The leaves are used as material for making fans, hats and straw raincoats and as roofing material, and the young shoots are edible.
On Yonaguni Island, the fruit is reportedly made into miso.
The wood is used for decorative alcove posts, walking sticks, bows and arrows, cabinetry and mortars.
It appears under the name "binro" (檳榔) in the Kojiki and the Engishiki; in the Heian period it was used for fans and ox-drawn carriages, and in particular the carriage roofed with bleached white leaves, called "birou-ge no kuruma", was ridden by retired emperors, imperial princes, ministers, those of the fourth rank and above, court ladies, high-ranking priests and others.
In Okinawa it is regarded as a sacred tree.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed.
For potted plants, keep them indoors in winter.
It prefers a sunny location, but direct summer sun can cause leaf scorch, so move it to partial shade.
Plant it in well-drained soil; from spring to autumn water after the soil surface has dried, and in winter, because growth stops, reduce watering.
Overwatering causes root rot.
Apply liquid fertilizer from spring to autumn, but withhold fertilizer if you do not want the plant to grow large.
When roots emerge from the bottom of the pot, repot into a pot one size larger before the plant becomes root-bound.
Aphids and scale insects may appear.

[Notes]
It was confused with the separate species Binro, and the characters 檳榔 were applied to it; the name "Biro" is said to be a变化 of "Binro".

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