Caryota urens

Caryota urens is a species of flowering plant in the palm family from the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia where they grow in fields and rainforest clearings. The epithet urens is Latin for "stinging" alluding to the chemicals in the fruit. They are commonly called solitary fishtail palm, toddy palm, wine palm, jaggery palm (கூந்தற்பனை in Tamil, කිතුල් in Sinhala, ಬೈನೆ ಮರ in Kannada, ചൂണ്ടപ്പന - Choondappana in Malayalam). Its leaf is used as fishing rod after trimming the branches of the leaf and drying. According to Monier-Williams, it is called moha-karin ("delusion maker") in Sanskrit. It is one of the sugar palms.

Description

Caryota urens species is a solitary-trunked tree that measure up to 12 m (39 ft) in height and up to 30 cm (12 in) wide. Widely-spaced leaf-scar rings cover its gray trunk which culminate in a 6 m (20 ft) wide, 6 m tall leaf crown. The bipinnate leaves are triangular in shape, bright to deep green, 3.5 m (11 ft) long, and held on 60 cm (24 in) long petioles. The obdeltoid pinnae are 30 cm long with a pointed edge and a jagged edge.