page_title: Phoenix (plant)
section_title: Uses
hierarchical_section_title: Phoenix (plant) / Uses
caption_attribution_description: English: Bunch of Phoenix sylvestris fruits. (It is not full ripe, but partially. Fully ripe fruits are black color, and earlier stage has green color.)
context_page_description: Phoenix is a genus of 14 species of palms, native to an area starting from the Canary Islands in the west, across northern and central Africa, to the extreme southeast of Europe, and continuing throughout southern Asia from Turkey east to southern China and Malaysia. The diverse habitats they occupy include swamps, deserts, and mangrove sea coasts. Most Phoenix species originate in semiarid regions, but usually occur near high groundwater levels, rivers, or springs. The genus is unusual among members of subfamily Coryphoideae in having pinnate, rather than palmate leaves; tribe Caryoteae also have pinnate or bipinnate leaves.
  The palms were more numerous and widespread in the past than they are at present. Some Phoenix palms have become naturalised in other parts of the world; in particular, the date palm's long history of cultivation means that escaped plants in the past have long-since become ingrained into the native ecosystems of countries far from its original range in the Middle East.
context_section_description: The fruit of P. dactylifera, the date of commerce, is large with a thick layer of fruit pulp, edible, very sweet and rich in sugar; the other species have only a thin layer of fruit pulp. The central soft part of the stem of  P. rupicola, P. acaulis, and P. humilis is a rich source of starch. Palms are felled to extract this central ‘pith’ which is dried, powdered, stored and used for preparation of bread in the Indian subcontinent. The P. canariensis sap is cooked to a sweet, thick syrup.  P. sylvestris Roxb. is widely used in India as a source of sugar. The sugary sap from some African palms yields country liquor on fermentation (palm wine).
  While P. dactylifera is grown for its edible dates, the Canary Island date palm (P. canariensis) and pygmy date palm (P. roebelenii) are widely grown as ornamental plants, but their dates are used as food for livestock and poultry. The Canary Island date palm differs from the date palm in having a stouter trunk, more leaves to the crown, more closely spaced leaflets, and deep green rather than grey-green leaves. The fruit of P. canariensis is edible, but rarely eaten by humans because of their small size and thin flesh.
  The different species of the genus frequently hybridise where they grow in proximity. This can be a problem when planting P. canariensis as an ornamental plant, as the hybrid palms are aesthetically inferior and do not match the pure-bred plants when planted in avenues, etc.
caption: P. sylvestris synonym Phoenix sylvestris has edible sweet fruits.
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "4272", "Image ImageLength": "2848", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 450D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2016:05:15 08:39:41", "Image Artist": "P.C.Anton", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "308", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1210", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9725", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/100", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:07:16 12:20:43", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:07:16 12:20:43", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "53/8", "EXIF ApertureValue": "45/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "5", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "4294967295", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "53", "EXIF SubSecTime": "06", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "06", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "06", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2717", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1084", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "2136000/439", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "356000/73", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}