Mumbai abloom with rare palms

 
One of the world's largest palm trees, the Talipot, or Corpypha umbraculifera, is abloom in different parts of Mumbai. They have flowered at the St.Francis d' Assissi Church compound in Borivali,Mazgoan,Goregaon,Vile Parle and at the Jijampta Udyan, the local zoo. "This species.. needs around 50 or 60 years to bloom", plant taxonomist Dr.Suchnadra Dutta sid here on Saturday. " According to calculations they produce about 12 million flowers, which contain more than 500kg of seeds". Once it bears fruits, the plant dies. It gradually uses up all the nutrient reserves accumulated in the trunk over the decades. The Talipot is monocarpic, flowering only once when it is 30 to 80 years old. It takes about  a year for the fruits to mature. There will be thousands of round yellow-green fruits, measuring to 3-4 cm im a diameter. Each will have a single seed.The flower is native to the Malabar coast and Srilanka, and it is SriLanka's national tree. As the name Umbraculifera suggets, the flowers simulate a crown and an umbrella. Individual specimens can reach a height of 25m, with stems up to 1.3mm in diameter. It is a fan palm, with large palmate leaves upto 5m in diameter, with a petiole spreading up to 4 m and with some 130 leaflets.

 
(The Hindu, 3rd June 2007)