Ascending the mystery of the Palmyra

PROCEEDING stoically in its journey heav-enward as far as nature would allow it, varying in height from 30 to 40 or as far as 60 metres, the Palmyra tree (Borassus flabellifer) could be called the mascot of Northern Sri Lanka.

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Ketheeswaran with his daughter Palmyra, the mascot of Northern Sri Lanka

When you proceed by road from anywhere else in the island, the first signal that you are nearing the most resilient of regions of Sri Lanka is the glimpse of this tree. With its fan-shaped leaves, clusters of purple-black fruit, and scaly trunk showcasing its diamond-shaped patterns marking the legacy of older leaves, this tree, just like the people of Northern Lanka, has withstood over 30 years of bloodshed. Testimony to this fact would be the many headless trees with their charred trunks, reminding the world of the misery of war.

This tree integrates its enduring nature with a multifunctionality that makes the Palmyra an economic enigma. It is said that there are nearly 1,000 uses from this tree including furniture, mats, arts and crafts, food and drink in the form of toddy, desserts/tonic from the jellylike interior of the fruit kernel, flour made out of the root which also doubles up as an instant energy-boosting snack whether boiled or consumed in its dried form.

In understanding all these, let us now focus on the humans who ascend these trees in order to give us the drink and the fruit and who have been linked to this plant species for generations.

An 87-year-old Jaffna dweller explained as follows: