Fruit From Palm Trees

Fruit from palm trees comes in amazing assorted varieties!

Palm trees produce a number of unique fruits. Some are quite delicious. And no doubt you've heard of the well-known coconut and perhaps the date. Did you know the date is a palm tree fruit?

Have you heard of the acai berry? Lately has gotten more popular. There's said to be some healthful benefits from eating acai.

We've tried it a few times. Had a fruit bowl mixture including acai that was quite good. Lately I've been buying organic green tea with blueberry & acai concentrate added in. I love it, & have been reordering.

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You could Try It Out - We Recommend It! Even more-so if you're a regular tea drinker.

For the fruits from palm trees, you can explore many options.

Actually, all Palms Grow Fruit.

With 2400/+ species of palm trees in the world, there are that many sorts of fruits from palms. Some are edible, probably the fruit from palm trees in about 100 species. So you can see most are not edible.

We'll decipher all of that here! 

So, be ready to discover this diverse & sometimes delicious world of palm tree fruit.

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Introduction to Fruit from Palm Trees

Now we know that they all have a stunning variety of fruits!

Even though most people think of palm trees for their connection with tropical climates & unique looks. And not for their fruit.

From sweet & juicy, to tart, tangy, bitter & inedible.

• Think of that favorite of edible fruits: The Coconut!
• Or one that's not well-known for eating, But It's edible!

Fruits from a palm tree can be classified as: the good, the bad & the ugly!!

We'll check for these different types of fruit from palm trees. We'll take you to a selection of the edible, the questionable & the awful/don't eat 'em!

Edible Palm Tree Fruits

Edible fruit from palm trees are used regularly.

Some types of Palms Are Grown exactly for their palm fruit. You may not have heard of many of these palm tree fruits, since they don't ship them elsewhere. They don't last long. No kind of shelf life.

If you visit the area where these palms primarily grow, you may have a chance to taste them. Seeing if you'd like them!

Peach Palm for its Delicious Fruit

Surely sounds like a palm tree with yummy fruit! Is it? 

Bactris gasipaes is found from Central to South America. Fruits are orange, yellow or red. 

• The fruit is locally called Chontaduro. It's a diet staple. Often eaten right off the palm.
• They have a potato-like consistency. 
• Growers even developed a seedless version.

Woman Prepares Orange Peach Palm Fruit
At Santiago de Cali Columbia Airport

Vegetable Ivory Palm Fruit

Hyphaene petersiana is native to central areas of Southern Africa. It can grow quickly.

• People like its sweet fruit. After getting rid of the prickly outer shell!

• Other parts are useful locally.

Vegetable Ivory Palm has some good fruit. That's the palm it comes from!

Chilean Wine Palm Needed Protection

Jubaea chilensis originated in Chile's savannahs & lower Andes' foothills. Fruits are tiny & round. May be yellow, orange or something in between. 

• It became endangered because the sap's been used for wine production. Trees were cut down for the process. Now they're protected.
• If you have a chance to sample one, drill down to the seed, that's delish! Having a coconutty taste.

Jubaea chilensis Fruit Shows the Inner Nut
Fell From a Chilean Wine Palm at Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart

The Weird World of the Sea Coconut

AKA Double Coconut. Which are huge! Resembling two black coconuts hooked together. Lodoicea maldivida comes from two islands of the Seychelles. 

• They take up to seven years to ripen.
• What's valued is the humungous inner seeds, the largest seed on earth! 

1. With gargantuan legends attached!! See what they are when you Get Our Monthly Memos>

On an Estate, They've Rigged Holders For Protection

So Strange a Look, They Put It in a Museum Collection!

Ubussu Palm or Yolillo Palm

Manicaria saccifera fruits becomes a refreshing, nourishing drink. Or even a cough syrup.

From areas in Central & South America.

• The look is different. With triangular scales & curly spurs. 
• They often drop & roll into nearby flowing waters. Until they land, and begin sprouting.
• When unripe its inner section is liquidy.

The Museum de Toulouse Specimen Photo Helps Evaluate the Ubussu Palm Fruit's Size

Moriche Palm - The Swamp Dweller

Mauritia flexuosa loves steamy, Amazonia's swamplands.

Hogging up areas where it grows. Its edible palm fruits are regionally popular.

• A typical fruit is three inches, kind-of egg-shaped. With a scaly skin. 
• People get the dark red, ripened fruits to eat right off the palm tree. 
• They also gather fruits to make flour. Even express the oil for cooking. Or ferment the fruit for a tipsy style drink!

This Moriche Palm Has Fruits

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Close-up Look of Ripe, Moriche Palm Fruits - Looks Delish?

Red Salak Fruit is Highly Favored

Salacca affinis is from the islands of Southeast Asia.

Likes swampy rain forests.

• It has locally eaten, teardrop shaped, red fruits. 
• In Thailand it's called Luk sala, or written in Thai: ลูกสละ. You may hear it called Snake Fruit. 
• Some say it tastes kind of sour. Others think it's like a smoothie with dried bananas & dates mashed with jackfruit.

What Do You Think About Trying Snake Fruit?

Acai Berries are Called a Superfood!

The fruit from Acai Palm Trees (Euterpe oleracea) have recently become one of the most favorable fruits from palm trees.

Acai berries are actually drupes (Learn About Palm Fruit Drupes). They're popularized as the superfood of palms. They've become popular around the world, with a unique flavor. They're native to the Amazon rainforest, in estuary-type environments. 

You'll find them in Healthy Tea Mixtures smoothie bowls, juices & other creative dishes. Local people use fruit from the Acai palm in many dishes.

These small, (usually) purple berries grow yearly on about 8 infructescences (flower stalk that now produces fruit) per palm. Once picked, they're only good for about 24 hours. They must be dried or flash frozen to survive shipping. 

The high antioxidant content accounts for that "Superfood" Reputation. Antioxidants can help protect you from damage of free radicals. But Acai berries are nutritionally packed! They have lots of good fiber & vitamin C. With healthy fats, plus potassium & phytochemicals.

Questionably Edible Fruits

Some palm tree fruits aren't popularly eaten by humans.

Even though they're technically edible.

Like the traditionally used Fruit of the California Fan Palm. You could try them out if you'd want. What do you think your reaction would be? Some are eaten, by having an experimental outlook and getting that acquired taste.

But their value is typically useful as animal feed.

The Prickly Macaw Palm Fruit Can Be Imbibed!

MACAW PALM

Also known as Macaúba. The Acrocomia aculeata has a fibrous fruit. Found in Mexico, the Caribbean & areas of South America.

• Although people have been known to eat the sweet pulp, it's more useful to humans for the oil. 
• This palm's fruit is primarily given over to feed animals. 
• But there are stories from Panama about the palm tree's sap for an alcoholic drink that will zap your wild disposition into gear!

Acrocomia aculeata With Still Unripe Grugu Nuts

Fruit of the Canary Island Date Palm

Phoenix canariensis originated on the Canary Islands - think you figured that!

At full growth, this palm tree is massive.

• It produces oval-shaped almost dayglo orange fruit. 
• They're technically okay to eat. But would you want to? Their taste isn't very tasty!

Fruit in Abundance on the Phoenix canariensis Palm

• Another part that's there to produce fruit, gives something tasty! Newly grown inflorescences (flower stalk) ooze sap. That's transformed to honey.

Flowering Inflorescences on the Canary Island Date Palm

African Wild Date Palm - An Acquired Taste?

Some locals eat this palm's fruit!

Probably it's an acquired taste! Phoenix reclinata is also called Senegal Date Palm. Growing in Africa, especially riverside.

• Brownish oval fruits are under one inch long. 
• The seeds inside are ground into flour.

Wild Date Palm Fruits at Skukuza Nursery
In Kruger National Park, South Africa

Cherry Palm is Natively Endangered

Also called Wine Palm, the Pseudophoenix vinifera is sadly endangered within its original indigenous source, on Hispaniola.

Since it's been a constantly cut palm, with sap used for wine production.

• Fruits are distinctive, brilliantly red in a long inflorescence. From 1-2 inches & round. 
• But don't think you'd want a taste - yuk! 

1. Instead they're fed to domestic animals.

Wine Palm Fruit

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Other Fruit from Palm Trees

Palmyra to Betel Nut & More!

Many other varieties are worth looking into. We have a few more examples here.

You May Have Heart About Betel Nut!

Are there health risks to using it?

This palm tree's fruit produces a stimulant. Coming from the Areca Palm (Areca catechu), it's sometimes called the areca nut.

It's used by people specifically for the energy boost it causes. It speeds up the central nervous system because some of its ingredients causing an adrenaline release.

Commonly chewed in areas of Asia, the Pacific Islands & East Africa. Long-term users can be spotted by their purplish tinted teeth.

It can even cause tooth loss & is reportedly a carcinogen.

Still a Few More to Consider

Many other palm fruits have their own unique flavor & possible culinary uses. With varied & local uses in multiple cultures. Some examples are:

• Orange Palm Tree Fruit - From the Butia capitata palm, producing a Jelly Palm Fruit.

• Fan Palm Tree Fruit - Which includes two types of fruits from fan palm trees

1. Washingtonia robusta - The fruit from palm trees of this species can be freshly eaten, or dried.
2. California Fan Palm Fruit - from the Washingtonia filifera palm.
3. Compare the robusta & filifera.

Takeaways for Fruit From Palm Trees

The next time you're looking to try something new & unique, you might think of these fruits. Now after considering the wide variety of fruits from palm trees.

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