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== Synonyms ==
*''Zalacca rumphii'' Wallich ex Blume (1843).
== Vernacular names ==
== Description ==
*A dioecious, creeping and tillering palm, growing in clumps with very spiny leaves. In palms over 100 years old, the creeping stem can reach 3-4 m, with an erect terminal leaf-bearing part 1 m tall and with many adventitious roots, most abundant towards the tip. Roots can reach a length of 2 m but do not extend to a great depth. *Leaves 3-7 m long, pinnate; spines flat, linear-triangular, almost perpendicular to the leaf-sheaths, some pointing downwards; leaflets 60-75 cm × 6-8 cm. *Male inflorescences about 1 m long, branching into many reddish spadices; flowers with 3 sepals, 3 petals and 5 stamens; anthers with functional yellowish pollen; female inflorescences 1-2 m long, with 3-8 reddish spadices, each with staminate and hermaphrodite flowers in 1:1 ratio, both without functional pollen; staminate .*Staminate flowers with a reddish, tubular corolla and 5 staminodes borne on the corolla throat; hermaphrodite flowers with 3 pink sepals, fused at the base, ovary trilocular, hairy, with a short, trifid dark red stigma, staminodes 5-6, borne on the corolla throat. *Fruit a drupe, occurring in dense heads, obovoid, 2.5 cm long, the skin (epicarp) consisting of orange-brown scales with reflexed brittle points; endocarp not differentiated. *Seeds 1-3, covered with a fleshy sarcotesta.
== Growth and development ==
Fresh seed germinates readily and propagation from seed is easy. However, vegetative propagation is recommended. Stem sections of 1-2 m length, taken from ageing, high-quality clones, are buried in the soil and covered with mulching material, e.g. rice straw. The soil is kept moist to force viable buds on the cuttings to sprout. The plantlets are separated from the stem and nursed in polythene bags for a year before planting out in the field at the beginning of the rainy season. Vegetative propagation by separating rooted suckers from the mother palms is less common. At Chanthaburi Horticulture Research Centre work is in progress to propagate the palm through tissue culture.
The number of palms per ha varies from 200 to 400, depending on the cultivar. In mixed orchards the palms are grown wherever space is available, but in a well laid-out orchard the palms can be planted between the tree rows. Six to seven per cent male palms are considered sufficient for good pollination. Xenia effects are quite noticeable in ''S. wallichiana'' , so it is important to choose a compatible male strain.
== Husbandry ==
== Literature ==
* Mogea, J.P., 1981. Notes on Salacca wallichiana. Principes 25(3): 120-123.
* Moncur, M.W., 1988. Floral development of tropical and subtropical fruit and nut species. CSIRO, Melbourne. pp. 127-130.
* Salakpet, S. & Polprasid, P., 1990. The flower of the Salacca wallichiana palm. Kasikorn 63: 1 (in Thai).
== Authors ==