Get familiar with the palm oil tree known for its towering height, palmate leaves, robust trunk, and oil with a long value chain.
The palm oil tree, scientifically named Elaeis guineensis, is one of many cash trees known for its wide applications across industries.
Originating from West Africa, palm oil tree cultivation has widened across the world because of its rising demand for application in food products, biofuels, and cosmetics.
In this introductory article, we will describe the palm oil tree, its characteristics, environmental impact, and social implications.
Related: Benefits of Palm Oil
Key Takeaways
- The palm oil tree, Elaeis guineensis, is outstanding for its towering height, frond/leaves, and rounded trunk, producing the all-important red oil.
- Originally from West Africa, palm oil tree cultivation has expanded globally due to high demand in food, biofuels, and cosmetics.
- The palm oil tree thrives in tropical climates, growing tall with long fronds and a rough, scarred trunk, producing fruit year-round.
- The life cycle of palm oil includes the juvenile, adult, and reproductive stages, and can live up to 200 years in the wild.
Table of Contents
- Key Takeaways
- What is the Palm Oil Tree?
- Growing Up with the African Red Oil Palm Tree
- Botanical Description of Palm Oil Tree
- Characteristics of the Palm Oil Tree
- Geographic Distribution
- Lifecycle of the Palm Oil Tree
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Word from PalmOil Pathway
What is the Palm Oil Tree?
The palm oil tree, Elaeis guineensis, is a tropical tree indigenous to West Africa, predominantly Nigeria and Ghana that produces the important red palm oil fruits that yield palm oil widely used in food, cosmetics, and biofuel industries. The palm oil tree reaches about 30 feet tall with a rounded black-grey trunk and slender leaves that grow on fronds.
Related: Everything to know about Palm Kernel Oil
Growing Up with the African Red Oil Palm Tree
Red palm oil tree was the major economic tree of my community in South East Nigeria alongside cassava.
Every family had and still has some pockets of palm oil plantations they inherited from forefathers and which they will leave for their offspring.
Every other month, this red gold was harvested, processed, and stored in cans awaiting the best time when demand and price were high to be taken to local markets.
It was an interesting childhood with my parents contracting the harvesters who climb the tall palm trees with special raffia ropes as the wind swayed them high up in the tree.
The sound of their voices with each stroke of the sharp matchet, cutting the fronds for easy access to the red, ripe bunches.
The heavy bunches falling with a heavy thud at the foot of the oil palm tree, with some of the fruits detaching from the bunches, was satisfying.
It was later in my adulthood that I got to know that this common tree in my locality holds its own in the global trade and economy.
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Botanical Description of Palm Oil Tree
The palm oil tree is scientifically classified as Elaeis guineensis, valued for its rich oil and industrial application.
Understanding the botanical characteristics of this tropical tree gives insight into how it is grown and its ubiquitous cultivation.
Description of Elaeis Guineensis
Elaeis guineensis, or the African oil palm, is native to the West African rainforests. Belonging to the Arecaceae family, the oil palm tree is characterized by its unmistakable long fronds of palmate leaves and rounded trunk.
The African palm tree does well in tropical climates and soil where it can grow to a towering 18-22 meters (66 feet) height.
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Characteristics of the Palm Oil Tree
Let’s examine the characteristics of the palm oil tree – from its height to the leaves and the trunk:
Height
The palm oil tree grows tall and upright, with its rounded trunk rising straight and sturdy from the ground.
Mature palm trees of bearing age can reach heights between 18 to 22 meters, dominating in most tropical forests.
Though there are variants that can bear bunches around the height of 3 meters, the majority of the African palm matures around the height of 12 meters.
Palm fronds/Leaves
The leaves of the red oil palm tree are in fronds that grow several meters in length, with blade leaves attached to the two sides of the stalk in opposite directions.
The shape of the fronds and the arrangement of the leaves give ample surface area for photosynthesis to take place.
The stalks are attached around the trunk at the topmost end of the stem with the newest shoots of light green colour pointing upwards.
The fronds of the palm tree form a spread around the three with the oldest at the lower neck of the tree, and sheds as the tree grows.
The shedding of the fronds forms the unmistakable rings around the trunk.
Trunk
The trunk of the palm oil tree is rough, and round, and ranges from black to grey colours and sometimes mixed depending on environmental factors.
It is marked with patterned rings of scars from shed fronds over years of growth.
It has an average diameter of 1.5 feet which increases with age and growth.
The trunk not only serves as support to the expansive canopy but also as a reservoir for nutrients vital to the palm tree’s growth, nourishment, and fruit production.
Bunch and Fruits of the Palm Oil Tree
The fresh fruit bunch of an oil palm is a large cluster of fruits that grow together on the tree attached to the tree by a central stalk.
Each bunch can contain up to 400 fruits and weigh up to 30 kg. The fruits are arranged in a spiral pattern around a central stem, forming a spherical shape that tappers at the tip.
The bunch is made up of the following key parts:
- Stem: The central stalk that attaches the bunch to the tree.
- Spikelets: The branches that extend from the stem and hold the individual fruits.
- Fruits: The oval-shaped drupes that contain the valuable palm oil
Geographic Distribution
The palm oil tree has an expansive geographical distribution that spans both its native habitats and cultivated regions worldwide.
Let’s take a closer look:
Native Regions of the Palm Oil Tree
The palm oil tree is native to the lush rainforests of West Africa, especially Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote D’ivoire, and Cameroon, and stretches along the belt to Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The tree thrives in tropical humid climates with reasonable rainfall and rich loamy soil that it depends on for its growth.
In my South Eastern Nigeria, while the palm tree can be propagated and planted, it usually grows everywhere the fruits find themselves, and is usually a menace as they can grow in unwanted places.
This is because our native region of the palm tree provides the ideal conditions needed for the tree to flourish to produce abundant bunches of its precious oil.
Global Distribution and Economic Significance
Due to its global demand and versatility across industries, the cultivation of palm oil trees has expanded far beyond their indigenous habitats.
Today, red palm oil plantations are scattered across South East Asia, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia which produce the majority of the world’s palm oil value chain.
These regions offer favorable conditions as in West Africa, including tropical climates and fertile soils conducive to high yields.
The global demand for palm oil drives its cultivation in regions across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, where it serves as an important agricultural commodity.
Palm oil’s use in food production, cosmetics, biofuels, and other industries informs its economic relevance, sustaining livelihoods and economies in the producing regions.
Lifecycle of the Palm Oil Tree
One remarkable thing about the palm oil tree is that it starts producing at the juvenile age, and continues to produce several years after.
Most of the palm trees my family has been harvesting since I was 5 are still producing bunches today in my mid-forties. You can imagine the longevity of the palm oil tree.
The lifecycle of the oil palm tree passes several stages, each with its unique characteristics and requirements.
In the wild, the palm oil nuts germinate and grow wherever they find conducive.
As mentioned above, my community never planted palm trees, they grew on their own in people’s farms.
But in recent times, palm seedlings have been propagated with high-quality seeds that are carefully selected and cultivated in nurseries, where they are cared for.
Growth Phases: Juvenile, Adult, and Reproductive Stages
Once the seedlings have reached about 12-15 leaves and a height of at least one meter, they are ready to be planted in the oil palm plantation.
The best time for planting is during the rainy season, from June to September, as this allows the plants to establish their root systems before the dry season.
Juvenile Stage
In the juvenile stage, the oil palm tree has a fast growth, with the first bunch showing about 13-20 months after planting.
As the tree matures, it enters the adult stage, where it continues to grow and produce increasingly larger and heavier bunches of fruit.
Adult/Reproductive Stage
The reproductive stage of the palm tree lifecycle is the most economically important.
It is marked by the trunk becoming prominent as the frond stalks rot and shed, revealing the rounded, robust trunk.
During this stage, the tree reaches its peak yield, producing 12 to 14 fresh fruit bunches at different periods of the year, with each bunch weighing between 10 and 25 kilograms.
This peak production is maintained for about 8 years, after which a gradual decline in yield begins.
However, some palm trees in South Eastern Nigeria seem to be everlasting outliving humans.
Fruit Production and Harvesting Cycles
The palm oil bunches are harvested round the year with bunches ripening at different times sometimes monthly.
When unripe, the fruits are black with inner pulps resembling coconuts.
The ripe fruits turn bright red or red-orange and can be spotted far away. Some palm trees can bear round the neck up to 7 to 8 bunches and in rare cases ripen simultaneously.
Harvesting the bunches from the tree is quite difficult for the fully mature trees which cannot be accessed from the ground because of their height.
My people of South Eastern Nigeria long ago devised a means of climbing up the neck of the tree where the bunches are with the aid of locally made ropes tied around the thigh and ankle.
The juvenile palm trees can be harvested from the ground with the bunch’s neck dislodged from the tree using a sharp matchet or sickle.
The harvested fresh fruit bunches are then transported to palm oil mills, where the oil is extracted from both the seed (kernel) and the flesh (mesocarp) of the fruit.
So, it’s safe to say that in my South Eastern Nigeria, the life cycle of the palm oil tree is an average of 100-150 years after which the tree dies off with juvenile palm trees replacing it a few meters away.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you identify an oil palm tree?
An oil palm tree is identified by its towering height, rough trunk with ring scars, long fronds with palmate leaves, and large fruit bunches.
What is the scientific name of the palm oil tree?
The scientific name of the palm oil tree is Elaeis guineensis, native to West African rainforests.
Where is the palm oil tree originally from?
The palm oil tree originates from West Africa but is now cultivated worldwide due to high demand.
How tall can a palm oil tree grow?
The palm oil tree can grow up to 18-22 meters tall, with a robust trunk and long fronds.
Final Word from PalmOil Pathway
The palm oil tree, Elaeis guineensis, is a versatile and valuable tree with an average height of 18 feet, long slender leaves on fronds, a rounded trunk, and high-demand oil.
Originally from West Africa, its cultivation has spread worldwide due to its economic viability in various industries such as food, biofuels, and cosmetics.
The tree’s lifecycle involves multiple stages, with peak fruit production during the adult/reproductive stage before gradually declining.
Citations:
https://www.goldenagri.com.sg/oil-palm-grown
https://eos.com/blog/oil-palm-plantation
