Nypa fruticans

Nipa palm
Temporal range: 70 Ma
↓

Late Cretaceous - recent

Nipa palms in Bohol, Philippines
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Nypoideae
Griff.
Genus: Nypa
Steck[2]
Species: N. fruticans
Binomial name
Nypa fruticans
Wurmb[3]
Synonyms[3]
  • Cocos nypa Lour.
  • Nipa arborescens Wurmb ex H.Wendl.
  • Nipa fruticans (Wurmb) Thunb.
  • Nipa litoralis Blanco
  • Nypa fruticans var. neameana F.M.Bailey

Nypa fruticans, commonly known as the nipa palm (or simply nipa) or mangrove palm,[4] is a species of palm native to the coastlines and estuarine habitats of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the only palm considered adapted to the mangrove biome. This species is the only member of the genus Nypa and the subfamily Nypoideae, forming monotypic taxa.[5]

Description

The trunk or stem of the nipa palm is under the mud. Only the leaves project upwards
A globular flower cluster on a nipa palm
The northernmost distribution of Nypa fruticans is seen on Iriomote Island, Japan
A globular fruit cluster of the nipa palm

The nipa palm's trunk grows beneath the ground and only the leaves and flower stalk grow upwards above the surface. Thus, it is an unusual palm tree, and the leaves can extend up to 9 m (30 ft) in height. The flowers are a globular inflorescence of female flowers at the tip with catkin-like red or yellow male flowers on the lower branches. The flower produces woody nuts arranged in a globular cluster up to 25 cm (10 in) across on a single stalk. The ripe nuts separate from the ball and are floated away on the tide, occasionally germinating while still water-borne.[6][7]

Distribution

Nipa palms grow in soft mud and slow-moving tidal and river waters that bring in nutrients. The palm can be found as far inland as the tide can deposit the floating nuts. It is common on coasts and rivers flowing into the Indian and Pacific Oceans, from Bangladesh to the Pacific Islands. The plant will survive occasional short-term drying of its environment. It is considered native to China (Hainan region), the Ryukyu Islands, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Java, Maluku, Malaya, the Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatra, the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, Queensland, and the Australian Northern Territory. It is reportedly naturalized in Nigeria, the Society Islands of French Polynesia, the Mariana Islands, Panama, and Trinidad.[3]

Japan's Iriomote Island and its neighboring Uchibanari Island are the most northern limit of the distribution.[1][8]

Uses

Nipa palm leaves used as thatching in a Tagbanwa stilt house (kamalig) in the Philippines

The long, feathery leaves of the nipa palm are used by local populations as roof material for thatched houses or dwellings. The leaves are also used in many types of basketry and thatching. Large stems are used to train swimmers in Burma as it has buoyancy.

On the islands of Roti and Savu, nipa palm sap is fed to pigs during the dry season. This is said to impart a sweet flavour to the meat. The young leaves are used to wrap tobacco for smoking.

Food and beverages

In the Philippines and Malaysia, the flower cluster (inflorescence) can be tapped before it blooms to yield a sweet, edible sap collected to produce a local alcoholic beverage called tuba, bahal, or tuak. Tuba can be stored in tapayan (balloon vases) for several weeks to make a kind of vinegar known as sukang paombong in the Philippines and cuka nipah in Malaysia. Tuba can also be distilled to make arrack, locally known as lambanog in Filipino and arak or arak nipah in Indonesian.

Young shoots are also edible and the flower petals can be infused to make an aromatic tisane. Attap chee (Chinese: 亞答子; pinyin: yà dá zǐ) (chee meaning "seed" in several Chinese dialects) is a name for the immature fruits—sweet, translucent, gelatinous balls used as a dessert ingredient in Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Singapore.

In Indonesia, especially in Java and Bali, the sap can also be used to make a variant of Jaggery called gula nipah. Also in Sarawak, where it is called gula apong.

Biofuel

The nipa palm produces a very high yield of sugar-rich sap. Fermented into ethanol or butanol, the sap may allow the production of 6,480–15,600 liters (per year) of fuel per hectare. Sugarcane yields 5,000–8,000 liters per hectare (per year) and an equivalent area planted in corn (maize) would produce just 2000 liters (per year) per hectare, before accounting for the energy costs of the cultivation and alcohol extraction.

Fossil record

While only one species of Nypa now exists, N. fruticans, with a natural distribution extending from Northern Australia, through the Indonesian Archipelago, the Philippine Islands up to China, the genus Nypa once had a nearly global distribution in the Eocene (56-33.4 million years ago).[9]

Fossil mangrove palm pollen from India has been dated to 70 million years.[10]

Fossilized nuts of Nypa dating to the Eocene occur in the sandbeds of Branksome, Dorset, and in London Clay on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, England.[11]

A fossil genus of Nypa, N. australis, has been described from Early Eocene sediments at Macquarie Harbour on the western coast of Tasmania.[12]

Fossils of Nypa have also been recovered from throughout the New World, in North and South America, dating from at least the Maastrichtian period of the Cretaceous, through the Eocene making its last appearance in the fossil record of North and South America in the late Eocene.[13]

Assuming the habitat of extinct Nypa is similar to that of the extant species N. fruticans, the presence of Nypa fossils may indicate monsoonal or at least seasonal rainfall regimes, and is likely indicative of tropical climates.[12] The worldwide distribution of Nypa in the Eocene, especially in deposits from polar latitudes, is supporting evidence that the Eocene was a time of global warmth, prior to the formation of modern polar ice-caps at the end of the Eocene.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Nypa fruticans". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2010: e.T178800A7610085. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-2.RLTS.T178800A7610085.en. Retrieved 10 October 2015.
  2. ↑ "genus Nypa". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) [Online Database]. United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, Maryland. 16 March 2010. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "Nypa fruticans". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  4. ↑ "Nypa fruticans". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  5. ↑ John Leslie Dowe. Australian Palms: Biogeography, Ecology and Systematics. p. 83. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  6. ↑ Flora of China, v 23 p 143, Nypa fruticans
  7. ↑ Wurmb, Friedrich von. 1779. Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen 1: 349, Nypa fruticans
  8. ↑ "船浦ニッパヤシ群落保護林の保護管理検討委員会報告書" [Funaura nipa palm habitat conservation and management committee report] (PDF). Kyushu Regional Forest Office. p. 6. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  9. ↑ Gee, Carole T. "The mangrove palm Nypa in the geologic past of the New World." Wetlands Ecology and Management 9.3 (2001): 181-203.
  10. ↑ Singh R. S., 1999, Diversity of Nypa in the Indian subcontinent; Late Cretaceous to Recent. The Palaeobotanist 48(2):147-154.
  11. ↑ plant_material
  12. 1 2 Pole, Mike S., and Mike K. Macphail. "Eocene Nypa from Regatta Point, Tasmania." Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 92.1 (1996): 55-67
  13. ↑ Gee, Carole T. "The mangrove palm Nypa in the geologic past of the New World." Wetlands Ecology and Management 9.3 (2001): 181-203
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