Corypha umbraculifera, the talipot palm, is a species of palm native to eastern and southern India and Sri Lanka. It is also in Cambodia, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand and the Andaman Islands.[2]
It is one of the largest palms in the world. Individuals have reached up to 25 m (82 ft) with stems up to 1.3 m (4.25 ft) in diameter.[3] It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with large leaves up to 5 m (16 ft) in diameter, with a leaf stem up to 4 m (13 ft), and up to 130 leaflets.
The talipot palm bears the largest inflorescence of any plant, 6-8 m (20-26 ft) long, consisting of one to several million small flowers borne on a branched stalk at the top of the trunk.[4] The talipot palm flowers only once,[5] 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 (1.2-1.6 in) in diameter, each containing a single seed. The plant dies after fruiting.[6][7]
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