Corypha umbraculifera - Talipot Palm

Native to South India and Srilanka, Talipot Palm is one of the largest palms in the world; individual specimens have reached heights of up to 25 m, with stems up to 1.3 m in diameter. It is a fan palm with large palmate leaves up to 5 m in diameter, with a petiole up to 4 m, and up to 130 leaflets. The Talipot palm bears the largest inflorescence of any plant, 6-8 m long, consisting of one to several million small flowers borne on a branched stalk that forms at the top of the trunk. The Talipot palm is monocarpic, flowering only once, when it is 30 to 80 years old. It takes about a year for the fruit to mature, producing thousands of round yellow-green fruit 3-4 cm diameter, containing a single seed. The plant dies after fruiting. The Talipot palm is cultivated throughout southeast Asia, north to southern China. Historically, the leaves were written upon in various Southeast Asian cultures using an iron stylus to create palm leaf manuscripts. The leaves are also used for thatching, and the sap is tapped to make palm wine.