Arenga Pinnata fruit

[Kumar]

One of the seeds I collected in Thailand was that of Arenga Pinnata - a giant short lived monocarpic palm of huge dimensions. The fruit itself resembles a peach and is soft and yielding when ripe and yellow. Here it is -

Anyway, I was cleaning some of the other seeds that I had brought back so as to ensure they dont start rotting and it was the turn of the Arenga. So with a knife I started peeling the flesh off. Unfortunately the fruit contained not one but three seeds?? and somewhere along the way one of the seeds coated with a sticky gelatinous substance went into the air straight towards my neck and lodged itself under my shirt where it came into plenty of bodily contact.

Now I know the literature says that the flesh of the arenga is irritating but that is surely an understatement and whoever wrote that must have had the skin of a rhinocerous, for within ten minutes of extricating the seed, there arose a pleasantly mild itch, within the next ten discomfort and in half an hour it felt as though dozens of red ants were stinging me all over - very very unlpleasant. the pain turned into an ugly rash which subsided only in the evening and even now the memory is hurtful.

Nevertheless, if that Arenga thought it could get away with assault and attempt to cause grevious bodily harm using deadly force it was mistaken. The offender was duly recaptured and stripped of its powers, literally.

Here is how the coated seed looks

And this is the cleaned seed, quite safe

Anyone have experience germinating these?

[Kumar]

This is the mother plant

[MattyB]

Looks like a Syagrus.

[Kumar]

Looks like a Syagrus.

Sorry - i may have put in the wrong photo - here is the correct one, with unripe fruit

[Tyrone]

That's a better pic. They germinate very easily. Some Arengas can take some months to come up. I had an A westerhoutii seed come up about two years after the first one in the batch. You'll probably get 100% germination as you have very fresh seed.

Best regards

Tyrone

[Kumar]

That's a better pic. They germinate very easily. Some Arengas can take some months to come up. I had an A westerhoutii seed come up about two years after the first one in the batch. You'll probably get 100% germination as you have very fresh seed.

Best regards

Tyrone

That sounds promising. I'm no good at germinating seed (except for phoenix - which must be the easiest to germinate) and in fact would have sent these to Kris but he has his hands full with his son so I will have to do the job myself.

Edited February 12, 2011 by Kumar

[Kostas]

Germination is really easy in a moist substrate. Arenga seeds are not rot prone at all so its a somewhat bulletproof procedure!

These are remote germinators so care should be taken during transport of germinated seed to not break the radicle. Also,keep the germinated seed/young seedling in a well draining mix as they can rot. For me,they are slow as seedlings...