Genduru (Caryota mitis)

Genduru (Caryota mitis) is a plant species in Arecaceae, a tree-shaped palm, often living in clumps, trunk up to 15 meters high, up to 15 cm in diameter, hard bark, black and strong, when young it has ring-shaped fibers.

C. mitis has pinnate, double leaves and fin-shaped minor leaves. The leaves are up to 3 meters long, grow spreading and extending upwards and are shiny green. Minor leaves have a size of 7-20 cm, oblique, slightly tapered and serrated.

Inflorescences in panicles, branching and hanging. The bunches appear from beneath the leaves or out from the middle of the stem. The first inflorescence grows near the end of the stem and the other younger inflorescences grow under the stem regularly and successively.

Male flowers have a large number, 1 cm long, red with red dots. Sepals are wide, 8 petals and cup-shaped, many stamens with clumped stalks at the base of the flower. The female flowers bloom almost simultaneously and are purple to red-brown in color.

The fruit is round, red in color and turns purple or dark red or dark blue when ripe. The pulp is brittle and slightly stringy. Seeds are round. Genduru grows in lowland forests up to an altitude of 1300 m.

The fruit and leaves contain oxalate crystals which cause itching on the skin. The trunk is used as a wheel. Sago is white to eat when food is scarce even though it has a bitter taste. The stem fibers are dried to make a spongy fibrous cloth.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Coryphoideae
Tribe: Caryoteae
Genus: Caryota
Species: Caryota mitis

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