What we, the inhabitants of the middle latitudes, aware of the palms and their fruit?Our shops have dates (in the form of dried fruit) and coconuts.Recently we call the nuts, though they are not.Botanists refer to coconuts berries.Thus, the fruit closer to the watermelon than a hazelnut, despite his hard shell.But there are other fruit trees, among coconut and tamarind.And also edible.What kind?We will talk about them in this article.And by the way, does not grow bananas on the palms, and the fruits are perennial herbs.Here such here tropical wonders.
coconut tree
When the Portuguese first saw the fruit of the tree, they did not have any doubt that it is - a nut.Delicious fleshy core, hidden under hard like wood, shell, attracted their attention.For the "shaggy" hairs on the fruit of the Portuguese christened it "coco" - "monkey."And so it happened: in English overseas berry became known coconut.And in the Russian language name literally translated: coconut.Homeland berries scientists believe Malaysia, where the fruit is excellent to stay afloat, ocean currents spread throughout the tropical regions.Why coconut tree is called a universal nurse?Because wood is a valuable material.Its leaves are used for roof huts.The fruit of the coconut palm in various stages of ripeness gives juice, milk, butter, tasty flesh.The farm used even hard shell "nuts."From it make various products.
fruit of the coconut palm: a universal "breadwinner»
«Hairy nuts" are the basis of the well-being of many people in the Pacific.When it is less than five months old, which is located inside the coconut juice.It is sour-sweet taste and a great thirst quencher.The juice contains a lot of nutrients.As maturation of the liquid vegetable fat droplets appear.Juice is converted into milk.This fragrant, sweet emulsion is widely used in cooking, cosmetics and traditional medicine.Milk left "sour" - it turns out that something like sour cream.Make of it and oil.At the peak of maturity, when the weight of the fruit of the coconut palm reaches a half to two kilograms, the flesh inside the shell is formed.She scraped from the walls and prepare from it a lot of delicious dishes.In the dried form, it can be stored for years.This - the same coconut that we use for topping cakes.
Date palm
This small tree has the scientific name Phoenix.Palm began to cultivate in ancient times - in Mesopotamia in the IV millennium BC.In various regions it gives hybrids, and not always with edible fruits.What we used to use, there are dried fruit palm Phoenix dactylifera.This stocky shrub with feathery leaves that are based on metamorfirovany in sharp spikes.The fruit of the date palm is very high in calories (220-280 calories per hundred grams).Moreover, in dried form long they can be stored and transported.In India, the local species of palm Phoenix silvestris made "Tari" - sweet wine.But the date shy of Laos, which gives black fruit, grown as an ornamental houseplant.In Europe, the Canary Islands grows Phoenix canariensis Chabaud.This is high - up to 15 meters - amber tree produces fine fruit.
peach palm
homeland of the high - up to 30 meters - the tree is the jungle of the Amazon basin.Local Indian tribes have long cultivated this plant as edible fruits are not only trees, but also peeled stem.Leaves are used for roof huts.The scientific name of the palm - Bactris gasipaes, and popular - "Peach" because of round pink-orange fruit.On the palate, they are certainly different from the Mediterranean fruit.They hang in clusters of hundreds of long pieces.In fruits thin skin and powdery sweetish pulp.The stone is large, with pointed tip.Indians fruits boiled in salted water for a few hours and drink sauce as a side dish, we - potatoes.From the pulp also prepare local vodka.Since it is dry, the it was milled and added to flour for baking different.There is only one drawback at the peach palm.Collection rich harvest difficult as sharp as daggers, black and long spikes at the top of the barrel.
Seychelles palm
fruit of the tree with the scientific name Lodoicea maldivica true champion.Ripening he reaches eighteen kilograms in weight, and his impressive size - more than a meter in circumference.Can not complain about the locals and a poor harvest.Steadily about seventy of weights brings a Seychelles palm.The fruit, however, is maturing as many as six years.But do not wait that long!In the food consumed fruit yearling.It is in this age of the pulp has the consistency of jelly, because later it hardens and becomes hard as ivory.It is a treat previously highly valued.Europeans called this "nut" sea coconut (coco-de-mer) and paid him big money.The fruit Seychelles palm endowed with magical properties and was considered a panacea for all ills.No less surprising fruit and the tree itself.Unlike coconut palms, seyshelovye inflexibility are under hurricane wind as stone columns.And begin to bear fruit, just reaching the age of one hundred years.When it starts to rain, under the crown seyshelovoy palm trees to hide as a most reliable roof.The leaves of a tree-form grooves vodoulavlivateli.Streams of rain roll down to the cuttings from the stem, and then on to the roots of it.
Ginger palm tree
name speaks for itself.Only here the taste of gingerbread are not the fruit of palm trees, powdery and fibrous husk.While the poor feed on grapes rather dry.In this palm is one feature that distinguishes it from others.On the tree can be three or four branches.Each of them completed fan-shaped leaves, among which there are flowers.Not all of them turn into fruit, ginger palm trees because there are different genders.Only the females give people beautiful bunches of brilliant light brown fruit.In southern Egypt, the tree is called a singular poetic - "palm doom."
Asai
Homeland tree is the north of Brazil, the modern state of Pará.Fruits of the acai palm trees are small, round, one and a half centimeters in diameter.As figs, berries come in two varieties: green and dark purple.The taste is reminiscent of raspberries and blackberries with a touch of walnut.But that is not allocated to other fruit acai berry trees.They contain the same amount of protein as in cow milk.Total handful of small fruit is able to satisfy the hunger of an adult: the energy value from the product - 182 kcal.High in them and the content of iron, vitamins B and E. It is very low cholesterol.Fruits of the acai palm trees is recommended to use athletes as they contribute to the regeneration of muscles, as well as prescribe their patients anemia.In the food consumed in the fresh form, and subjected to heat treatment.From fruits make liquors and wines, and kidney - salads.
Serenoa
This tree from Southeast Asia, there are other names.Most often it is called a dwarf or creeping palm tree.Wood brings a berry size of 2-3 centimeters.Externally, the fruit trees creeping like a big olive.Saw palmetto berries are very helpful.They contain carotene, which helps to improve visual acuity.The extract from the berries of this plant are used to treat acne, and as a natural sunscreen.Residents of the regions where it grows saw palmetto, palmetto fruit eating fresh, considering them as a strong aphrodisiac.
