Phoenix sylvestris

sugar date palm

Fruits of the sugar date are supposedly edible and sweet as the name implies but the only ones I have tried from our tree I have spat out almost immediately because of the astringent taste. The flesh is grainy, not particularly tasty and dries up your mouth pretty quickly. Perhaps I nabbed the fruits from the plant too soon, though they were certainly dark red and sizable. Fruits provide a good feed for dairy cows and are believed to increase the fat content of the milk. I sure hope the cows enjoy the taste more than I do.

Sweet juice extracted from the palm prior to flowering can either be drunk straight as a refreshing beverage or fermented to form palm wine. Sugar may be obtained from the juice and jelly from the fruit.

Several traditional medicinal applications have been reported for this palm. Roots are used to treat toothache; pounded fruits are mixed with other nuts and sugar to form a type of restorative granola; fruits are used against heart and abdominal complaints; and the heart of the palm is used to treat gonorrhea. Trunks of this palm are used in house construction in its native India as the supporting beam of the roof. Trunks are halved in order to use in the diversion of water into water mill turbines.

The sugar date is an ornamental plant that has less disease susceptibility than the cultivated date palm and the canary date palm. Its leaflets, however, have sharp tips and long spines can be found along the leaf petioles. If its tasty fruit you’re after, perhaps growing the cultivated date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) is a better choice, as it at least has a higher yield of palatable fruit.