Areca palm (Areca catechu)

Pinang or jambe or areca palm (Areca catechu) is a species of plant in the Arecaceae, monocots, straight stems, slender, up to 25 meters high, up to 15 cm in diameter, widely used for snacks, sweets, pharmaceuticals, household appliances and handicrafts.

A. catechu has a tubular leaf midrib with a length of 80 cm and a short petiole. Strands up to 80 cm long, leaflets 85x5 cm with torn and serrated ends.

Flower heads with elongated spathas, easy to fall off, appear under the leaves, about 75 cm long, short stalks and double branches, tip axis up to 35 cm long.

One female flower at the base, about 1.5 cm long, 6 stamens and green. The male flowers are arranged in 2 rows embedded in grooves, 4 mm long and white and yellow. Buni fruit is oval inverted, elongated, red-orange, 3.5-7 cm long and has fibrous fruit walls. A seed and egg-shaped.

Areca palm grows well on deep soil solum without rock layers, lateric soil types, red clay and alluvial. Rainfall 750-4,000 mm/year with wet months between 3-6 months or water available throughout the year. The optimum temperature is between 20-32C, air humidity is 50-90%, soil pH is 4-8 and sunlight is 6-8 hours/day.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Arecoideae
Genus: Areca
Species: Areca catechu

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