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.

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

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