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Caryota urens L.

Family	:	Arecaceae/Palmae
Local name	:	English-Fish-tail palm Malayalam- Choondappana
Flowering and fruiting period	:	January-April
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests, also in the plains
IUCN	:	Least concerned
Uses	:	Ornamental
Key botanical characters : Monoecious stout tall palms, 16-20 m tall, diam., trunk smooth with prominent annular leaf-scars. Leaves bipinnate, pinnae 5-7 pairs, to 1.5 m long; leaflets broadly cuneate, fan-shaped, 7-10 cm wide at wider portion, raemose at apex, many ribbed. Spadixinterfoliar, shortly peduncled, much branched, pendulous, to 4 m long; spathes few, 40-50 cm long. Flowers many, in triads with female flower in the middle. Sepals 3, rounded, imbricate. Petals linear-oblong, valvate.Stamens many.Ovary 3-celled, 3-gonous; ovule 1-per locule. Fruit, globose, reddish purple; seeds plano-convex, subreniform.