talipot

The talipot palm (Corypha umbraculifera) is a large tropical palm native to the Indian subcontinent and parts of Southeast Asia. It is among the biggest palms, with a stout trunk and enormous fan-shaped leaves that give it a distinctive crown.

It grows slowly and can reach 25–30 meters tall. The crown bears palmately arranged leaves up to several meters across, with long petioles. The species is monocarpic, flowering only once after many years and then dying after fruit set. Its inflorescence is a long panicle emerging from the crown, bearing thousands of flowers. The fruit are oval drupes with a single seed and typically ripen to dark colors.

In its native range, talipot palms occur in tropical lowland forests, river valleys and coastal regions, from western India and Sri Lanka into parts of Myanmar, Thailand and Malaysia. They tolerate seasonal rainfall and are sometimes cultivated as ornamental trees.

Historically, talipot leaves were used as writing material for palm-leaf manuscripts in South Asia and Southeast Asia; the leaves were dried, treated and inscribed with a stylus. Leaves and trunks are also used locally for roofing and thatching, and the tree is grown in parks for its dramatic appearance.

Because mature individuals die after flowering, regeneration depends on seedling establishment, making local populations sensitive to disturbance. The species is cultivated in plantations and gardens in tropical regions and is protected in some areas through habitat conservation.