Betel nut palm

The Essence

"The Betel nut palm (Areca catechu) is a slender, solitary tropical palm best known as the world's primary source of the areca or betel nut, chewed by hundreds of millions of people across Asia and the Pacific as a mild stimulant. Despite that fame, it is also a handsome ornamental landscape palm, growing straight to about 20 m tall on a green trunk that ages to grey, marked with prominent white ringed leaf scars and crowned by pinnate leaves up to 2 m long. Fragrant cream flowers give way to smooth ovoid fruits, ripening from green to orange-yellow or red, each holding a single hard seed. The species is native to the Philippines but has been carried by people since at least around 1500 BCE, during the Austronesian migrations and trade, and is now cultivated or naturalized throughout the tropics. It is frost-tender and thrives only in warm, humid, frost-free climates (roughly USDA zone 10b to 11), making it a plant for true tropical and subtropical gardens."

Areca catechu has travelled with people since at least around 1500 BCE, carried along the routes of the Austronesian migrations and trade, which spread it far beyond its native Philippines across the tropical world.