S. and SE Asia: inferred tropical rain forest into dry forest, to 1200 m; putatively wild, Assam and Burma. Sap for sugar, wine (36 l/tree/day); starch from trunk (75 kg/tree); fibre from leaf sheath; edible heart; juice of fruit corrosive but skin is edible; tall, spiny trunk and prickly foliage effective fence barrier. Widely cultivated India, SE Asia; sometimes planted after shifting cultivation; fibre exported; inedible fruit; monocarpic; monoecious; solitary terminal flowering feather palm; long spines on trunk. Unimproved.
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