Hyphaene thebaica
1. Hyphaene thebaica (L.) Mart., Hist. Palm. 3: 225, t. 131-133 (1838-1845). Plate Palm. 2.
= Corypha thebaica L. (1753); Cucifera thebaica Del. (1814).
Arabic Name: Doum دوم
English Name: Doum palm
Repeatedly forked, slender-trunked, dioecious palm, up to c. 10 (20) m tall. Leaves up to c. 1.5 m long, palmate (fan-shaped), deeply divided into linear-lanceolate segments; petioles c. 60 cm long, woody, with recurved thorns along the margins. Fruit developing from a single carpel, often with rudiments of 2 other carpels at base; brown to reddish brown, globose to oblong, 6-8 cm long, up to 6 cm wide; epicarp smooth, mesocarp rather fleshy, sweetish, endocarp woody, enclosing white with brown exterior, coconut- smelling, miniature copra-like seed.
Saudi Arabia: Common along wadis in the western plains and intermontane wadis.
Distribution: Subsaharan Africa, Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan, Egypt, Palestine, Arabia.