- Family:
- Arecaceae Bercht. & J.Presl
- Genus:
- Areca L.
Areca catechu L.

[UNAL]
Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes/
- Vernacular
- catechu
[FTEA]
Palmae, John Dransfield. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1994
- Morphology General Habit
- Solitary palm; stem to 15 m. or more, slightly swollen near the base, to 25 cm. in diameter above, pale grey-brown below, rich dark green above in younger parts, with prominent leaf scars 15–20 cm. distant.
- Morphology Leaves
- Crown shaft to 1 m. or more in length, wider than the trunk, bearing a crown of 8–10 leaves. Leaf-sheath 60–80 cm. long, dark green; leaf to 2 m. long, with petiole to 15 cm. only; leaflets rich dark green, ± 15 on each side of the rachis, densely crowded, rather untidy, tending to droop somewhat at the tips, with 3 or more folds, often tattering at the tips in age, at the base 40–50 cm. long, in mid-leaf ± 70 cm. long, at the leaf tip 15–25 cm. long.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
- Inflorescence erect at first; prophyll thin, to 60 cm. long, 25 cm. wide, pale yellow-green when young and newly exposed, rapidly splitting, drying and falling; peduncle to 20 cm. long by 5 cm. wide; rachillae ± 30 cm. long, stiff, erect or spreading, pale creamy yellow, bearing ivory-white flowers along the lower side only.
- sex Male
- Male flowers ± 5 mm. long; sepals free, minute, unequal, ± 1 mm. long by 1 mm. wide; petals 3, valvate, ± 5 mm. long by 2 mm. wide, somewhat sinuous; stamens 6, with short filaments and anthers to 4 mm. long by 0.8 mm. wide.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
- Female flower with 3 imbricate, triangular sepals ± 1 cm. long by 1.1 cm. wide at base; petals 3, imbricate, ± 1.4 cm. long by 0.9 cm. wide; ovary rounded, ± 8 mm. in diameter; stigmas fleshy, white, glistening at anthesis. Male flowers ± 5 mm. long; sepals free, minute, unequal, ± 1 mm. long by 1 mm. wide; petals 3, valvate, ± 5 mm. long by 2 mm. wide, somewhat sinuous; stamens 6, with short filaments and anthers to 4 mm. long by 0.8 mm. wide.
- sex Female
- Female flower with 3 imbricate, triangular sepals ± 1 cm. long by 1.1 cm. wide at base; petals 3, imbricate, ± 1.4 cm. long by 0.9 cm. wide; ovary rounded, ± 8 mm. in diameter; stigmas fleshy, white, glistening at anthesis.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
- Young fruit green, ripening dirty yellow, orange or brick-red, ± 5 cm. long by 3.5 cm. wide.
- Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds
- Seed globose, flattened at basal end, ± 2 cm. in diameter; endosperm deeply and finely ruminate, the ruminations reddish brown when fresh.
- Habitat
- Largely coastal, planted here and there for its nut
- Distribution
- elsewhere commonly cultivated throughout the wetter parts of Asia and Malesia, country of origin unknown K7 P T3 T6 Z coastal towns, Amani
[UPFC]
- Distribution
- Elevation range: 400–1600 m a.s.l. Cultivated in Colombia. Colombian departments: Cundinamarca, Valle del Cauca.
- Habit
- Tree.
[CPLC]
Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co
- Distribution
- Cultivada en Colombia; Alt. 400 - 1600 m.
- Morphology General Habit
- Árbol
[UPFC]
- Use Environmental
- Environmental uses.
- Use Fuel
- Used for fuels.
- Use Food
- Used for food.
- Use Invertebrate Food
- Used as invertebrate food.
- Use Materials
- Used as material.
- Use Medicines
- Medical uses.
- Use Poisons
- Poisons.
- Use Social
- Social uses.
Native to:
Philippines
Introduced into:
Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, Caroline Is., China South-Central, Comoros, Dominican Republic, East Himalaya, Fiji, Hainan, Haiti, India, Jamaica, Jawa, Laos, Leeward Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maldives, Maluku, Marianas, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Puerto Rico, Santa Cruz Is., Society Is., Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad-Tobago, Vanuatu, Vietnam
- English
- Betel Nut Palm
Areca catechu L. appears in other Kew resources:
Date | Reference | Identified As | Barcode | Type Status | Has image? |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
May 21, 1980 | de Vogel, E. [3266], Indonesia | K000525785 | No | ||
Noblick, L. [5180], Indonesia | K000525791 | No | |||
s.coll. [Cat. no. 8597] | K001125935 | Yes |
First published in Sp. Pl.: 1189 (1753)
Accepted by
- Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
- Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
- Choudhary, R.K., Srivastava, R.C., Das, A.K. & Lee, J. (2012). Floristic diversity assessment and vegetation analysis of Upper Siang district of eastern Himalaya in North East India. Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy 42: 222-246.
- Girmansyah, D. & al. (eds.) (2013). Flora of Bali an annotated checklist: 1-158. Herbarium Bogorensis, Indonesia.
- Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
- Govaerts, R. (1995). World Checklist of Seed Plants 1(1, 2): 1-483, 1-529. MIM, Deurne.
- Heatubun, C.D., Dransfield, J., Flynn, T., Tjitrosoedirdjo, S.S., Mogea, J.P. & Baker, W.J. (2012). A monograph of the betel nut palms (Areca: Arecaceae) of East Malesia. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 168: 147-173.
- Henderson, A. (2009). Palms of Southern Asia: 1-197. Princeton university press, Princeton and Oxford.
- Meyer, J.-Y., Lavergne, C. & Hodel, D.R. (2008). Time bombs in gardens: invasive ornamental palms in tropical islands, with emphasis on French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean) and the Mascarenes (Indian Ocean). Palms; Journal of the International Palm Society 52: 23-35.
- Pandey, R.P. & Dilwakar, P.G. (2008). An integrated check-list flora of Andaman and Nicobar islands, India. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 32: 403-500.
- Powling, A. (2009). The palms of Buton, Indonesia, an island in Wallacea. Palms; Journal of the International Palm Society 53: 84-01.
- Takeuchi, W. (2005). Floristic notes from a holocene successional environment in Papuasia. Harvard Papers in Botany 10: 95-116.
- Watling, D. (2005). Palms of the Fiji Islands: 1-191. Environmental Consultants (Fiji) Ltd., Suva.
- Wu, Z. & Raven, P.H. (eds.) (2010). Flora of China 23: 1-515. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
Literature
Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia
- Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co
Kew Backbone Distributions
- Acevedo-Rodríguez, P. & Strong, M.T. (2012). Catalogue of seed plants of the West Indies. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany 98: 1-1192.
- Baksh-Comeau, Y., Maharaj, S.S., Adams, C.D., Harris, S.A., Filer, D.L. & Hawthorne, W.D. (2016). An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Trinidad and Tobago with analysis of vegetation types and botanical 'hotspots'. Phytotaxa 250: 1-431.
- Barthelat, F. (2019). La flore illustrée de Mayotte: 1-687. Biotope éditions.
- Choudhary, R.K., Srivastava, R.C., Das, A.K. & Lee, J. (2012). Floristic diversity assessment and vegetation analysis of Upper Siang district of eastern Himalaya in North East India. Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy 42: 222-246.
- Girmansyah, D. & al. (eds.) (2013). Flora of Bali an annotated checklist: 1-158. Herbarium Bogorensis, Indonesia.
- Heatubun, C.D., Dransfield, J., Flynn, T., Tjitrosoedirdjo, S.S., Mogea, J.P. & Baker, W.J. (2012). A monograph of the betel nut palms (Areca: Arecaceae) of East Malesia. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society 168: 147-173.
- Meyer, J.-Y., Lavergne, C. & Hodel, D.R. (2008). Time bombs in gardens: invasive ornamental palms in tropical islands, with emphasis on French Polynesia (Pacific Ocean) and the Mascarenes (Indian Ocean). Palms; Journal of the International Palm Society 52: 23-35.
- Pandey, R.P. & Dilwakar, P.G. (2008). An integrated check-list flora of Andaman and Nicobar islands, India. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 32: 403-500.
- Powling, A. (2009). The palms of Buton, Indonesia, an island in Wallacea. Palms; Journal of the International Palm Society 53: 84-01.
- Stutz, L.-C. (1982). Herborisation 1981 aux îles Maldives. Candollea 37: 599-631.
- Takeuchi, W. (2005). Floristic notes from a holocene successional environment in Papuasia. Harvard Papers in Botany 10: 95-116.
- Watling, D. (2005). Palms of the Fiji Islands: 1-191. Environmental Consultants (Fiji) Ltd., Suva.
Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia
- Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
- Burkill HM. (1995). The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vols. 1-3. The useful plants of west tropical Africa, Vols 1-3.
- Cámara-Leret, R., & Dennehy, Z. (2019). Information gaps in indigenous and local knowledge for science-policy assessments. Nature Sustainability 2:736-741.
- Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
- Diazgranados, M., Allkin, B., Black N., Cámara-Leret, R., Canteiro C., Carretero J., Eastwood R., Hargreaves S., Hudson A., Milliken W., Nesbitt, M., Ondo, I., Patmore, K., Pironon, S., Turner, R., Ulian, T. (2020). World Checklist of Useful Plant Species. Produced by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.
- FPI (2021). Food Plants International. https://fms.cmsvr.com/fmi/webd/Food_Plants_World?homeurl=https://foodplantsinternational.com/plants/
- GRIN (2021). Germplasm Resources Information Network from the United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.ars-grin.gov/
- Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/
- PROTA (2021). Plants Resources of Tropical Africa. https://prota4u.org/database/
- RBG, Kew (2021). Kew Economic Botany Collection. https://ecbot.science.kew.org/
- Willis, K.J. (ed.) (2017). State of the World’s Plants 2017. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Flora of Tropical East Africa
- C.H. Wright in Flora of Tropical Africa 8: 99 (1901).
- J.P.M. Brenan, Check-lists of the Forest Trees and Shrubs of the British Empire no. 5, part II, Tanganyika Territory p. 397 (1949).
- L., Sp. Pl.: 1189 (1753).
- R. O. Williams, Useful and Ornamental Plants in Zanzibar and Pemba p. 130 (1949).
- Warb. in Die Pflanzenwelt Ost-Afrikas und der Nachbargebiete, Theile C: 131 (1895).
-
Art and Illustrations in Digifolia
Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew
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Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia
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Colombian resources for Plants made Accessible
ColPlantA 2021. Published on the Internet at http://colplanta.org
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Flora of Tropical East Africa
Flora of Tropical East Africa
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Herbarium Catalogue Specimens
Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
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Kew Backbone Distributions
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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Kew Living Collection Database
Common Names from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Living Collection https://www.kew.org/
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Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2022. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
© Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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Kew Science Photographs
Copyright applied to individual images
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Palmweb - Palms of the World Online
Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
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Universidad Nacional de Colombia
ColPlantA database
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Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia
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