Arecaceae FAMILY

Raphia hookeri

Edibility

3/5

Medicinal

2/5

Safety & Hazards

The raw fruit is poisonous and is crushed for use as fish poison^[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitEvergreen Tree

Growth—

A plant of the wet, lowland tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 200 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 24 - 30°c, but can tolerate 14 - 36°c^[2]. It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 3,000 - 4,000mm, but tolerates 2,000 - 5,000mm^[2]. Requires a hot, sunny position in a moist soil^[3]. Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6, tolerating 4.5 - 6.5^[2]. Dislikes saline soils^[1]. Plants can tolerate being in flooded ground^[3]. A monocarpic plant - growing for several years without flowering, then producing a massive inflorescence and dying after setting seed^[4]. Inflorescences are produced more or less simultaneously in the axils of the most distal leaves. Tapping for wine may damage the developing inflorescence, making flowering impossible and accelerating death^[1]. The time from planting to flowering in Raphia hookeri is 3 - 7 years^[1]. Managed stands are mostly left to rejuvenate naturally by seed. In Nigeria, selected trees are left untapped for this purpose^[1].

Propagation

Seed - pre-soak for 24 hours in warm water and sow in containers. The seed requires several months to germinate^[5]. The germination period may range from 1 - 24 months, and the germination rate from 30 - 60%. Young plants are easily transplanted^[1]. It has been claimed that seeds should be sown ventral side upwards, because the embryo is located on this side, but research has shown that seed orientation does not influence germination or seedling growth^[1]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Raphia+hookeri>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

[1]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
[2]Ecocrop — http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home ↩︎Basic information on a wide range of useful plants, plus details of environmental needs where available.
[3]Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia. — http://www.pacsoa.org.au/ ↩︎Contains at least a little information on the majority of palm and cycad species, plus a wealth of photographs. A first class website.
[4]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
[5]Palms of the World — Blombery. A. & Rodd. T. · Angus and Robertson · 1992 · ISBN 0-207-14848-1 ↩︎An excellent guide, well illustrated, with information on cultivation, uses, habitat etc of almost 200 species of Palms.
[6]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
[7]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
[PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎