Beautiful Shots Raman Ji You have shown many Palms Today. Thanks for the great Series
On Thu, Feb 2, 2012 at 2:18 PM, raman <raman_arunacha...@yahoo.com> wrote: > This is the palm which produces to popular betel-nut or supari, which is > an essential ingradient of paan. It is a medium-sized tree growing to 20 m > tall, with a trunk 20-30 cm in diameter. The leaves are 1.5-2 m long, > pinnate, with numerous, crowded leaflets. It is grown for its economically > important seed crop, the Betel nut. The seed contains alkaloids such as > arecaine and arecoline, which when chewed is intoxicating and is also > slightly addictive. Flowers are unisexual, with both male and > female  flowers borne in the same inflorescence. > Inflorescences are crowded, much-branched panicles borne below the > leaves. Each terminal branch has a few female > flowers borne at the base and numerous male flowers extending > from there out to the branch tip. Flowers of both sexes have > six tepals, are stalkless, creamy-white, fragrant; > male flowers are minute, deciduous,  have six stamens, > arrowhead-shaped anthers, rudimentary ovary; female  > flowers are larger (1.2–2 cm long), with > six small sterile stamens and a  three-celled ovary > bearing a  triangular stigma with three points at the  > apex. Fibrous, ovoid fruits, > yellow to orange or red when ripe, contain the betel nut. > > Raman > -- Regards Dr Balkar Singh Head, Deptt. of Botany and Biotechnology Arya P G College, Panipat Haryana-132103 09416262964
