Bottle Palm

The bottle palm is a true palm in the family Arecaceae. Bottle palm has a large swollen (sometimes bizarrely so) trunk. It is a myth that the trunk is a means by which the palm stores water. Bottle palms have only four to six leaves open at any time. Leaf fronds are compound, mildly recurving, ascending to spreading, upwardly arching, 4 to 6; leaflets stiff, narrow, up to 140, each about 60 cm long. The flowers of the palm arise from under the crownshaft, borne in branched inflorescences, cream, horn-like, about 75 cm long. Fruits are oblong, ripening from green to orange to black, about 3 cm long. The genus name Hyophorbe comes from the Greek hys, ‘a pig’, phorbe, in reference to the fruit being eaten by pigs. Its species name lagenicaulis means ‘with a flask-shaped stem’ in Latin, in reference to its stem. Bottle Palm is native to Mauritius, cultivated elswhere.

Its scientific name is Hyophorbe lagenicaulis. The last part of the name is from two Greek words, ‘lagen’ meaning flask and ‘caulis’ meaning stem. The name literally contains an important clue to the plant’s form.