Swamp fan palm

The Essence

"Licuala paludosa is a clustering fan palm of Southeast Asian swamp forests, ranging from the Andaman Islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam south through Peninsular Malaysia to Sumatra and Borneo. True to its name — paludosa comes from the Latin for swamp — it grows on land inundated with water for six or more months a year, above all in peat-swamp forest. Its slender stems form a dense clump, each carrying circular fan leaves up to 1.5 m across on long petioles armed on their lower half with small black thorns. In a striking form from Thailand's coastal swamp forests the leafsheaths and petioles are vividly orange; described in 1997 as a separate species, Licuala aurantiaca — the "Golden Licuala" — it is now treated as a synonym of L. paludosa, yet remains much sought after ornamentally, its colour strongest in sun-grown plants and fading to yellow-green in shade. Locally the leaves are used to wrap ketupat, the traditional Southeast Asian rice dumpling, and to make hats, small baskets and raincoats, while the stems are employed in building local dwellings. Since it naturally stands in water for much of the year, cultivated plants demand constant moisture — a potted specimen is best kept with its saucer permanently full of water. The IUCN Red List assessed it in 2023 as Least Concern, though the Useful Tropical Plants database flags the conversion of large areas of Borneo's peat-swamp forests as a great threat to the species."

William Griffith described the species in the Calcutta Journal of Natural History in 1845. The orange-stemmed form of Thai coastal swamp forest was named Licuala aurantiaca by Hodel in 1997 — the "Golden Licuala" — but is now a synonym of L. paludosa, as are Licuala oxleyi, L. amplifrons and L. paniculata.