Species
+

Borassus flabellifer L.

Asian Palmyra Palm, Panai Maram, Sea Coconut, Tal

Climate known 46 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Borassus flabellifer, also known as palmyra palm, is a fan palm native to tropical and sub-tropical regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It is a tall, sturdy tree growing up to 20–30 m (66–98 ft), with large fan-shaped leaves arranged in the form of a crown. It produces a pale white and branched inflorescence consisting of clusters of flowers. It produces bunches of large fruits containing sweet, watery kernels.

Text from Wikipedia, “Borassus flabellifer”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Borassus

Borassus is a genus of five species of fan palms, native to tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Papua New Guinea.

Text from Wikipedia, “Borassus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka +6
Wild records
1018 in range· 541 open

At a glance

Warmest month
35°C
Apr, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1250mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Aug 191 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a rainy season, June to October in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer. Habitat rain 1250 mm a year, wettest August at 191 mm, driest January at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Borassus flabelliformis L.; Borassus flabelliformis Roxb.; Borassus sundaicus Becc.; Borassus tunicatus Lour.; Lontarus domestica Gaertn. and 2 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a rainy season, June to October in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the year's rain (887 mm of 1250 mm) falls in June to October, whose mean temperature, 27.6 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 27.3 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1250 mm a year, wettest August at 191 mm, driest January at 14 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1250 mm a year at the habitat, 887 mm of it June to October. Wettest month August at 191 mm, driest January at 14 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 838 mm to 2846 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 16.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 16.0 °C, the absolute minimum 14.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.4 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 34.5 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Dec to 35 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 26 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1250 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 607 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°41.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 30–41RH 56–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 607 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 25–3231 / 28–3433 / 30–3635 / 30–3733 / 30–3832 / 28–3631 / 27–3330 / 27–3330 / 28–3330 / 28–3129 / 28–3028 / 26–30
Night °C20 / 13–2421 / 16–2423 / 20–2525 / 23–2726 / 24–2825 / 23–2825 / 23–2724 / 22–2624 / 22–2623 / 21–2522 / 18–2520 / 14–24
Rain mm14 / 5–3617 / 5–3928 / 10–7158 / 16–15087 / 27–255140 / 30–573183 / 43–572191 / 38–417184 / 68–314189 / 65–335124 / 17–27535 / 5–169
DLI34 / 30–3738 / 34–4041 / 39–4441 / 38–4439 / 33–4433 / 26–3631 / 25–3530 / 25–3832 / 28–3931 / 29–3530 / 27–3230 / 27–34
RH %57 / 52–6256 / 50–6257 / 47–6360 / 48–6461 / 51–6662 / 54–7164 / 56–7164 / 57–7065 / 58–6963 / 59–6863 / 54–6659 / 52–64

Each figure is the median across the 607 grid cells holding the 976 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1601:5162 (9.925, 78.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 607 distinct grid cells holding the 976 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1601:5162 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.00_78.125, lapse-corrected -85 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 134 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is.· introduced: Mauritania, Socotra, China South-Central, Assam, Thailand, Malaya, Sulawesi
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker10.738, 76.672 · in the densest population, 321 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1018 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 541 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 42 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 42 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1018 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Borassus flabelliferBorassus flabelliferBorassus flabelliferBorassus flabelliferBorassus flabelliferBorassus flabelliferBorassus flabelliferBorassus flabellifer

Photographs: (c) T R Shankar Raman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Navaneeth Sini George, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Manoj Karingamadathil, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Ramnarayan K, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Borassus flabellifer, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Detection of Fe3+ ions in aqueous environment using fluorescent carbon quantum dots synthesized from endosperm of Borassus flabellifer
M. Nagaraj, Srinivasan Ramalingam, Chandran Murugan, Saad Aldawood (2022) · Environmental Research
Preparation and characterization of activated carbon derived from the Borassus flabellifer flower as an electrode material for supercapacitor applications
M. Sivachidambaram, J. Judith Vijaya, L. John Kennedy, R. Jothiramalingam (2017) · New Journal of Chemistry
Medicinal Flowers. XII.1) New Spirostane-Type Steroid Saponins with Antidiabetogenic Activity from Borassus flabellifer
Masayuki Yoshikawa, Fengming Xu, Toshio Morikawa, Yutana Pongpiriyadacha (2007) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
S-doped activated mesoporous carbon derived from the Borassus flabellifer flower as active electrodes for supercapacitors
F. Regan Maria Sundar Raj, N. Victor Jaya, G. Boopathi, D. Kalpana (2019) · Materials Chemistry and Physics
Sustainable nano-added biofuel production from borassus flabellifer oil for conventional internal combustion engines
G A Sivasankar, C. Balakrishna Moorthy, S. Kaliappan, Ravishankar Sathyamurthy (2023) · Energy
Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) sap as a potential source of sugar: Antioxidant and nutritional properties
Muhammad Asghar, Yus Aniza Yusof, Mohd Noriznan Mokhtar, Mohammad Effendy Ya’acob (2019) · Food Science & Nutrition
Review on Recent Advances in Value Addition of Jaggery based Products
Debashis Dutta (2015) · Journal of Food Processing & Technology
A review on Borassus flabellifer lignocellulose fiber reinforced polymer composites
Jitesh Kumar Singh, Arun Kumar Rout, Kanchan Kumari (2021) · Carbohydrate Polymers

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.