Arenga undulatifolia ARECACEAE (PALMS)

Local name: Langkap

Seed photos  by  María Fernanda González Giraldo. 

Arenga undulatifolia is one of Borneo’s most common forest palms often growing next to rivers but also found to at least 1,000m in the hills. There is only a short trunk and  Arenga undulatifolia often appears to have no trunk at all.

The  round fruit which ripen brown green are dispersed by Palm Civets which eat the fruit and defecate the seeds in a neat pile on paths and roadsides in forested areas.

The hard black seeds  are also common drift seeds on coastal beaches but A. undulatifolia does not grow along the coast.

Arenga Temburong 3P7A0428.JPG
Arenga undulatifolia growing next to the Temburong River in Brunei. There are reports that swidden farming locals would sometimes harvest the short palm trunks for sago starch when their rice crop failed  but it was always a second choice to  Pantu palms Eugeissona utilis if they were locally available.

Arenga Temburong3P7A0429.JPG

Arenga palm KK IMG_1734.JPG
Arenga undulatifolia growing at the base of Signal Hill, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah.