Arenga obtusifolia

Native to Peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Java (reaching the eastern Himalaya in Arunachal Pradesh), where it grows in wet lowland to mid-elevation forest. This clustering “Sumatra sugar palm” (langkap) is unusual among palms: it spreads by long creeping underground stolons to form clonal colonies, so a single plant can eventually claim a wide area. Erect stems reach roughly 40–50 ft (to ~15 m) at about 30 cm diameter, prominently ringed and clothed in persistent fibrous leaf bases, each stem crowned by ascending leaves to ~18 ft (6 m) long. The many lanceolate leaflets are dark green above and silvery beneath with jagged (praemorse) tips, carried on a robust petiole. Unlike most sugar palms, individual stems are pleonanthic and flower from the base upward (acropetal), so they aren’t killed by a single flowering; the small white-to-cream male flowers are fragrant. Ovoid fruits (to ~2 in) ripen from green to yellowish—handle with care, as the pulp, like others in the genus, contains irritant calcium-oxalate crystals. Grows moderately fast in full sun (tolerating some shade) in warm, humid conditions.

Weight: 2.3 oz.