2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Cycad Rumph (lat. Cycas rumphii) - tree-like evergreen dioecious plant of the genus
Cycad (Latin Cycas) families
Cycadaceae (lat. Cycadaceae) … Outwardly, the Cycad Rumph resembles a Palm, although botanists divide these plants into different families, believing that the Cycad is much older than the Palm. The homeland of this species is the islands located between the Indian and Pacific oceans. These are the islands of Indonesia, New Guinea and Christmas Island. Rumph's cycad serves as a source of food for the local population.
What's in your name
The specific Latin epithet "rumphii" immortalized the name of Georg Eberhard Pumphius (1628 - 1702), a Dutch naturalist who served as a military officer in the Dutch East India Company, and later in the same company in the civil service.
This plant is widely known under such names as "queen sago" ("Royal sago") or "queen sago palm" ("Royal sago palm"). The plant owes such names to the core of its trunk, which is a source of food starch.
Description
Cycad Rumph is a small woody plant. Cycads grow slowly, reaching a maximum height of ten meters in adulthood. Gradually dying leaves form a tree trunk up to forty centimeters in diameter. Dying stems form a gray bark, consisting of diamond-shaped or rectangular segments, the remains of the bases of the leaves.
Bright green leaves, reaching a length of one and a half to two and a half meters, have a thorny petiole from thirty-five to sixty centimeters long. They form a spreading crown at the top of the trunk, somewhat reminiscent of the crown of a Palm tree. And the leaves themselves, at first glance, look like the leaves of the Palm. Along each stem, on either side of it, there are from one hundred fifty to two hundred leaves with a glossy surface.
Cycad Rumph is a dioecious plant. A distinctive attribute of the male plant is an orange cone with a length of thirty to sixty centimeters. The bump has an oblong-ellipsoidal shape and exudes a fetid aroma. The attribute of the female plant is megasporophylls about thirty centimeters long. Fleshy megasporophylls are brown in color and covered with dense pubescence. The width of the fertile area of megasporophyll is about thirty-five millimeters.
The culmination of the growing cycle is the seeds, which, as they ripen, change their green color to orange or reddish brown. The seed is forty-five millimeters long and thirty millimeters wide.
Habitat
Cycad Rumph in the wild lives in tropical closed forests, or in coastal areas with calcareous soils. Cycad Rumph's range is concentrated in the Maluku Islands, extending to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi in the north; to the second largest island of New Guinea after Greenland, which is the territory of Australia, in the east; to the Indonesian island of Java and the third largest island of Borneo in the west. Cycad Rumph also grows on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, which is the territory of Australia. In addition, Cycad Rumph is cultivated as a food source in Fiji and Vanuatu.
Although Cycad Rumph grows in abundance in the areas listed above, it is rated as an endangered plant.
Usage
Cycad Rumph is popular with the local population, as the core of the tree trunk contains a starchy substance, suitable for human consumption. The core of the tree is first dried, then crushed and washed. The resulting starch is used to make sago groats that look like pearls. Porridge and other dishes are prepared from cereals. Sago can be cooked in water or milk. By adding milk and sugar, a sweet pudding is obtained.
Seeds containing "pacoin" - a toxic glycoside, after additional processing (grinding, repeated washing) are also used for cooking.
Healing abilities
For the treatment of skin ulcers, decoctions from seeds, bark, and plant sap are used, making poultices on the affected areas.
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