The meaning of the symbols of palm, date seen in a dream.

Corypha elata

Description: This tree may reach 18 meters in height. It has large, fan -shaped leaves up to 3 meters long and split into about 100 narrow segments. It bears flowers in huge dusters at the top of the tree. The tree dies after flowering.

Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in coastal areas of the East Indies.

Edible Parts: The trunk contains starch that is edible raw. The very tip of the trunk is also edible raw or cooked. You can get large quantities of liquid by bruising the flowering stalk. The kernels of the nuts are edible.

CAUTION

The seed covering may cause dermatitis in some individuals.

Other Uses: You can use the leaves as weaving material.... burl palm

Phoenix dactylifera

Description: The date palm is a tall, unbranched tree with a crown of huge, compound leaves. Its fruit is yellow when ripe.

Habitat and Distribution: This tree grows in arid semitropical regions. It is native to North Africa and the Middle East but has been planted in the arid semitropics in other parts of the world.

Edible Parts: Its fruit is edible fresh but is very bitter if eaten before it is ripe. You can dry the fruits in the sun and preserve them for a long time.

Other Uses: The trunks provide valuable building material in desert regions where few other treelike plants are found. The leaves are durable and you can use them for thatching and as weaving material. The base of the leaves resembles coarse cloth that you can use for scrubbing and cleaning.... date palm

See DRUG ASSISTED RAPE.... date rape

Nutritional Profile Energy value (calories per serving): High Protein: Low Fat: Low Saturated fat: Low Cholesterol: None Carbohydrates: High Fiber: Very high Sodium: Low (fresh or dried fruit) High (dried fruit treated with sodium sulfur compounds) Major vitamin contribution: B vitamins Major mineral contribution: Iron, potassium

About the Nutrients in This Food Dates are a high-carbohydrate food, rich in fiber and packed with sugar (as much as 70 percent of the total weight of the fruit). Dates are also a good source of nonheme iron, the inorganic iron found in plant foods, plus potassium, niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, but they are an unusual fruit because they have no vitamin C at all. A serving of 10 whole pitted Medjool dates has 16 g dietary fiber and 2.2 mg iron (12 percent of the R DA for a woman, 27 percent of the R DA for a man).

The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food With meat or with a vitamin C- rich food. Both enhance your body’s ability to use the nonheme iron in plants (which is ordinarily much less useful than heme iron, the organic iron in foods of animal origin).

Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food Low-carbohydrate diet Low-fiber/low-residue diet Low-potassium diet Low-sodium diet (dried dates, if treated with sodium sulfite)

Buying This Food Look for: Soft, shiny brown dates in tightly sealed packages.

Storing This Food Store opened packages of dates in the refrigerator, tightly wrapped to keep the fruit from drying out. (The dates sold in American markets are partly dried; they retain sufficient mois- ture to keep them soft and tasty.) Properly stored dates will stay fresh for several weeks.

Preparing This Food To slice dates neatly, chill them in the refrigerator or freezer for an hour. The colder they are, the easier it will be to slice them. If you’re adding dates to a cake or bread batter, coat them first with flour to keep them from dropping through the batter.

What Happens When You Cook This Food The dates will absorb moisture from a cake or bread batter and soften.

Medical Uses and/or Benefits Potassium benefits. Because potassium is excreted in urine, potassium-rich foods are often recommended for people taking diuretics. In addition, a diet rich in potassium (from food) is associated with a lower risk of stroke. A 1998 Harvard School of Public Health analysis of data from the long-running Health Professionals Study shows 38 percent fewer strokes among men who ate nine servings of high potassium foods a day vs. those who ate less than four servings. Among men with high blood pressure, taking a daily 1,000 mg potassium supplement—about the amount of potassium in ¾ cup pitted dates—reduced the incidence of stroke 60 percent.

Adverse Effects Associated with This Food Sulfite sensitivity. Dates contain polyphenoloxidase, an enzyme that oxidizes phenols in the fruit to brown compounds that turn its flesh dark in the presence of air. To keep dates from darkening when they are dried, they may be treated with sulfur compounds called sulfites (sulfur dioxide, sodium bisulfite, or sodium metabisulfite). Treated dates may trigger serious allergic reactions, including potentially fatal anaphylactic shock, in people sensitive to sulfites.... dates

Sabal palmetto

Description: The palmetto palm is a tall, unbranched tree with persistent leaf bases on most of the trunk. The leaves are large, simple, and palmately lobed. Its fruits are dark blue or black with a hard seed.

Habitat and Distribution: The palmetto palm is found throughout the coastal regions of the southeastern United States.

Edible Parts: The fruits are edible raw. The hard seeds may be ground into flour. The heart of the palm is a nutritious food source at any time. Cut off the top of the tree to obtain the palm heart.... palmetto palm

Caryota urens

Description: Fishtail palms are large trees, at least 18 meters tall. Their leaves are unlike those of any other palm; the leaflets are irregular and toothed on the upper margins. All other palms have either fan-shaped or featherlike leaves. Its massive flowering shoot is borne at the top of the tree and hangs downward.

Habitat and Distribution: The fishtail palm is native to the tropics of India, Assam, and Burma. Several related species also exist in Southeast Asia and the Philippines. These palms are found in open hill country and jungle areas.

Edible Parts: The chief food in this palm is the starch stored in large quantities in its trunk. The juice from the fishtail palm is very nourishing and you have to drink it shortly after getting it from the palm flower shoot. Boil the juice down to get a rich sugar syrup. Use the same method as for the sugar palm to get the juice. The palm cabbage may be eaten raw or cooked.... fishtail palm

Nipa fruticans

Description: This palm has a short, mainly underground trunk and very large, erect leaves up to 6 meters tall. The leaves are divided into leaflets. A flowering head forms on a short erect stern that rises among the palm leaves. The fruiting (seed) head is dark brown and may be 30 centimeters in diameter.

Habitat and Distribution: This palm is common on muddy shores in coastal regions throughout eastern Asia.

Edible Parts: The young flower stalk and the seeds provide a good source of water and food. Cut the flower stalk and collect the juice. The juice is rich in sugar. The seeds are hard but edible.

Other Uses: The leaves are excellent as thatch and coarse weaving material.... nipa palm

Calamus species

Description: The rattan palm is a stout, robust climber. It has hooks on the midrib of its leaves that it uses to remain attached to trees on which it grows. Sometimes, mature stems grow to 90 meters. It has alternate, compound leaves and a whitish flower.

Habitat and Distribution: The rattan palm is found from tropical Africa through Asia to the East Indies and Australia. It grows mainly in rain forests.

Edible Parts: Rattan palms hold a considerable amount of starch in their young stem tips. You can eat them roasted or raw. In other kinds, a gelatinous pulp, either sweet or sour, surrounds the seeds. You can suck out this pulp. The palm heart is also edible raw or cooked.

Other Uses: You can obtain large amounts of potable water by cutting the ends of the long stems (see Chapter 6). The stems can be used to make baskets and fish traps.... rattan palm

Metroxylon sagu

Description: These palms are low trees, rarely over 9 meters tall, with a stout, spiny trunk. The outer rind is about 5 centimeters thick and hard as bamboo. The rind encloses a spongy inner pith containing a high proportion of starch. It has typical palmlike leaves clustered at the tip.

Habitat and Distribution: Sago palm is found in tropical rain forests. It flourishes in damp lowlands in the Malay Peninsula, New Guinea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and adjacent islands. It is found mainly in swamps and along streams, lakes, and rivers.

Edible Parts: These palms, when available, are of great use to the survivor. One trunk, cut just before it flowers, will yield enough sago to feed a person for 1 year. Obtain sago starch from nonflowering palms. To extract the edible sage, cut away the bark lengthwise from one half of the trunk, and pound the soft, whitish inner part (pith) as fine as possible. Knead the pith in water and strain it through a coarse cloth into a container. The fine, white sago will settle in the container. Once the sago settles, it is ready for use. Squeeze off the excess water and let it dry. Cook it as pancakes or oatmeal. Two kilograms of sago is the nutritional equivalent of 1.5 kilograms of rice. The upper part of the trunk’s core does not yield sage, but you can roast it in lumps over a fire. You can also eat the young sago nuts and the growing shoots or palm cabbage.

Other Uses: Use the stems of tall sorghums as thatching materials.... sago palm

Arenga pinnata

Description: This tree grows about 15 meters high and has huge leaves up to 6 meters long. Needlelike structures stick out of the bases of the leaves. Flowers grow below the leaves and form large conspicuous dusters from which the fruits grow.

Habitat and Distribution: This palm is native to the East Indies but has been planted in many parts off the tropics. It can be found at the margins of forests.

Edible Parts: The chief use of this palm is for sugar. However, its seeds and the tip of its stems are a survival food. Bruise a young flower stalk with a stone or similar object and collect the juice as it comes out. It is an excellent source of sugar. Boil the seeds. Use the tip of the stems as a vegetable.

CAUTION

The flesh covering the seeds may cause dermatitis.

Other Uses: The shaggy material at the base of the leaves makes an excellent rope as it is strong and resists decay.... sugar palm