Skip to main content

Gebang (Corypha utan)

Gebang or agel (Corypha utan) is a plant species in Arecaceae, a large palm tree, single trunked, hard and has a leaf mark, up to 20 meters high and at the apex of growing long-stemmed leaves and coincide, flowering only once throughout life.

C. utan has large fan-shaped leaves with a diameter of 2-3.5 meters, pinnate leaf bones, green and collected at the end of the stem. Petiole has a length of up to 7 meters, wide, dark green, has a groove, has a row of black spines on both edges.

Dlium Gebang (Corypha utan)


Cylindrical rod, the outside is a hard and dense layer of skin, the inside contains vertical fibers, brownish in color and emits a reddish-brown sap, has circular segments which are traces of fronds that fall out as the phase changes in growth.

Gebang flower and fruit only once at the end of the life span after all leaves die at the age of 60-70 years. The flowers appear at the end of the stem in the terminal, panicles 3-5 meters with hundreds of thousands of flowers, greenish yellow and fragrant. Ball-shaped fruit, short-stemmed, green and 2-3 cm in diameter.

This palm grows spread in the lowlands to an altitude of 300 meters, open grasslands, streams, edges of swamps and sometimes in hilly areas. This tree grows into many groups forming a vast forest belt near the beach.

Young leaves are processed into a variety of woven materials including mats, hats, bags, sacks, ropes, nets and traditional clothing. Fiber is produced from leaf stalks that are cut into pieces, soaked and processed further. This fiber is spun into a rope or woven into hats.





Soft tree trunks are processed as flour for cakes that are burned and eaten with bananas. Gebang stems produce 90 kg of flour for each tree. Roots to treat diarrhea, water from the midrib is used as an anti-poison, reddish sap from the shoots of the stem is used to treat wounds, coughs and dysentery.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Coryphoideae
Tribe: Corypheae
Genus: Corypha
Species: Corypha utan

Popular Posts

Purwaceng (Pimpinella pruatjan)

Purwaceng or purwoceng or antanan gunung or Viagra of Java ( Pimpinella pruatjan or Pimpinella priatjan ) are small termas growing horizontally in Apiaceae, growing in villages on Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, at 1,500 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the roots have medicinal properties for aphrodisiacs and are usually processed in powder form for a mixture of coffee or milk. P. pruatjan grows flat on the ground but does not propagate, small leaves are reddish green for 1-3 cm in diameter. This plant is only found in Java and grows in high mountain areas. A low population where industrial demand is very high results in increasingly scarce. Another place that is likely to become a purwaceng habitat is the Iyang Mountains and the Tengger Mountains in East Java Province. Efforts to multiply and cultivate have a big problem where these plants have difficulty producing seeds. In vitro propagation research through tissue cultivation has been carried out to overcome ...

Six new species forming the Sumbana species group in genus Nemophora Hoffmannsegg 1798 from Indonesia

NEWS - Sumbawa longhorn ( Nemophora sumbana Kozlov, sp. nov.), Timor longhorn ( Nemophora timorella Kozlov, sp. nov.), shining shade longhorn ( Nemophora umbronitidella Kozlov, sp. nov.), Wegner longhorn ( Nemophora wegneri Kozlov, sp. nov.), long brush longhorn ( Nemophora longipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.), and short brush longhorn ( Nemophora brevipeniculella Kozlov, sp. nov.) from the Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia. The Lesser Sunda Islands consist of two parallel, linear oceanic island chains, including Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sumba, Sawu, Timor, Alor, and Tanimbar. The oldest of these islands have been continuously occurring for 10–12 million years. This long period of isolation has allowed significant in situ diversification, making the Lesser Sundas home to many endemic species. This island chain may act as a two-way filter for organisms migrating between the world's two great biogeographic regions, Asia and Australia-Papua. The recognition of a striking cli...

New living fossil, Amethyst worm lizard (Amphisbaena amethysta), from Espinhaço Mountain Range, Brazil

NEWS - New species from the northern Espinhaço Mountains, Caetité municipality, Bahia state, Brazil. Amethyst worm lizard ( Amphisbaena amethysta ) is the 71st species of the genus with 4 precloacal pores and the 22nd species of Caatinga morphoclimatic domain. Identification of the new species shows the reptiles of the Mountains are far from complete and may contain greater diversity of endemic taxa. A. amethysta can be distinguished by its anteriorly convex snout, slightly compressed and unkeeled, pectoral scales arranged in regular annuli, four precloacal pores, distinct head shield, 185-199 dorsal and half annuli, 13-16 caudal annuli, a conspicuous autotomy spot between the 4th-6th caudal annuli, 16-21 dorsal and ventral segments in the middle of the body, 3/3 supralabials, 3/3 infralabials and a smooth and rounded tail tip. A. amethysta occurs in areas with an average elevation of 1000 meters in patches of deciduous and semi-deciduous forests associated with valleys, slopes, fore...