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Botany
Small clustering palm. Stems are stout,
roughened with fallen leaf scars, clustered, 2 to 3 meters high, 5 to
10 cm in diameter. Leaves are about 1 meter across, glossy and fan-shaped,
deeply divided 9- to 13-partite and horizontally spreading with toothed
edges. Flowers are sessile, in 2 or 3 rows, nearly oval in shape. Corolla
is longer than the calyx, divided below the middle in three, broad,
lanceolate segments. Fruit is ovocvoid, 5 to 8 mm long, pelicelled by
the calyx tube, red when mature, and one seeded. Seed is ovoid and horseshoe-shaped.
Distribution
In seashores, back of
mangroves in brackish mud. Grows wild in thickets at low altitudes.
Cultivated for ornamental purposes.
Parts used
Bark.
Uses
Folkloric
In Cambodia, bark used in combination with other drugs
for treatment of tuberculosis.
Others
In Borneo, the leaf's fireproof durability is of critical
utility in preparing blowpipe dart poison –the latex of Antiaris
toxicaria tree is held on a folded boat-shaped young leaf of L.
spinosa, and held over a small flame for about a week. The use of the young leaf is considered critical to the poison processing.
Availability
Wildcrafted and ornamental
cultivation. |
