A multi-stemmed, clustering palm with feathery fronds, found along rivers and in wet savanna across tropical Africa.
The wild or Senegal date palm (Phoenix reclinata, family Arecaceae) is a large, clumping evergreen palm with several slender, unbranched stems up to about 10 metres tall and up to 25 cm thick, often bent over, and it often forms thickets. Each stem is topped by a rosette of 15 to 30 spiny leaves up to 2.7 metres long. It is an important part of the local economy where it grows, widely used for food and a range of materials, and it is planted as an ornamental. It is common and widespread, and although it is losing habitat locally it is classed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2016).
It grows across tropical Africa from Senegal to Somalia and south to South Africa and Madagascar, in open forest, savanna woodland and low thickets, usually on alluvial soil near streams where it can reach ground water, even if deep down. It grows up to 3,000 metres, best at 20 to 30°C with 800 to 3,000 mm of rain a year. It does well in full sun even when small and tolerates shade, but does not fruit in shade. It needs a light, moist but very well-drained soil, though in the wild it tolerates seasonal waterlogging, and it also succeeds in dry and poor soils. It hybridises freely with other Phoenix palms. Seed is best sown fresh and germinates in two to three months, and suckers can be divided off.
Source: Useful Tropical Plants database (Fern, K.).
Various parts are used in traditional medicine, including for malaria; the spines are also put to traditional use.
The fruit is edible and similar in taste to the commercial date; seeds can be roasted as a coffee substitute, the palm heart is eaten as a vegetable, and the sap can be tapped for palm wine.
Grows wild along rivers, swamps, and wet grassland; also planted as an ornamental palm.