Moringa olifera - miracle tree for the tropics.

Discussion in 'Planting, growing, nurturing Plants' started by permacultureplants, Oct 13, 2006.

  1. permacultureplants

    permacultureplants Junior Member

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    I mentioned it in another post but it is a bit obscure and this information needs to be more widely known.
    There is a great booklet on it at this site:
    https://www.moringatrees.org/index.html
    Everyone involved in third world projects needs to be familiar with this information.[​IMG]
     
  2. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    Good to see you back Posting again Jeff

    Tezza
     
  3. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Moringa is a fantastic plant. It has wonderful leaves, that taste good, and are loaded with vitamin A and protein.

    We have a few m. oleofera and a single m. stenopetala, which is usually found in dry regions, but seems to be doing well here, where we get 4 metres of rain a year.

    We have never been able to get seed, and these seeds were brought in from outside Belize, via ECHO in Fla. Its a shame as we really want to distribute it. We use it in salads, we eat it cooked, its a nice component of a salad dressing.

    I think we will contact ECHO again and buy a few kilos of seed. Thanks for posting this and renewing my interest!
     
  4. Squeak

    Squeak Junior Member

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    Commonly known here in Queensland as the Horse Radish Tree.
    Good eating indeed :D
     
  5. permacultureplants

    permacultureplants Junior Member

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    Great to hear Christopher. Echo are a great resource. I have supplied seed to them over the years and would encourage everyone to see what you can produce that they need.
    Great Web Site there Christopher. I know the species list is only partial, so what palms have you got growing?
     
  6. permacultureplants

    permacultureplants Junior Member

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    If you read the book I linked to in the top post, they warn against over-indulgence in the roots because of toxins. These can be mostly removed by removing the outer bark but some traces still remain in the rest of the roots.
    Thanks for the welcome Tezza.
     
  7. Squeak

    Squeak Junior Member

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    Who said anything about over indulging?
    You can eat the roots alright (boiling or grinding raw) but everything else is up for grabs too: leaves, pods, flowers, seeds, fruits etc.

    Moderation is a universal application :)
     
  8. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Hi Jeff,

    Thanks for the nice words about our web site. Its still bare bones, and we have a friend working on expanding it, so it will have more about where we are and what we are doing.

    For palms we have coconuts, large coconuts, malayan dawrf, Phillipnio dwarf, Maypan cocuonuts (resistent to lethal yellowing disease, cross of dwarfs and large), and the locally important cahune palm (used for thatching in Maya communities, also makes really good food grade oil), also peach palm, and several small palms here called "pacaya" (chamaemadorea tepijilote), and "xate", used for ornamentals (Chamaedorea ernesti-augustii), and some other ornamental palms, c. seifrizii, c. elegans, that also have fod and medicinal uses.

    Xate is collected illegally in its wild locations by Guatemalans, many of whom come across the border armed. It is a problem. There are efforts here to integrate xate into agroforestry systems, both as a seed bank for the future and as an alternative to taking from protected areas.

    We haven't given enough energy to palms, which is too bad. There is someone here who collects palms, has lots of species, but I haven't been motivated to go there yet.... too busy doing other things....

    Do you have an interest in palms?

    Christopher
     
  9. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    Thanks Jeff, what a great tree.
     
  10. permacultureplants

    permacultureplants Junior Member

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    Hi Christopher,
    I asked you about the palms of Belieze and for some obscure reason my autoresponse email ended up in the "trash" so I just stumbled upon your reply some week or so later.
    I am interested and sorry for the delay in response.
    My interest is in trying to compile a list of all the uses of palms and basic growing information. I am now about 350 pages into that process and am always trying to get local knowledge. It struck me that with about 38 native species you probably had some of them growing which you do.
    Do you eat the male flowers of the tepijilote?
    Pacaya is applied to Chamaedorea costaricana; Chamaedorea elegans (although my information suggests it only comes from Mexico and Guatemala it could easily be introduced, as it is to most of the Western world); Chamaedorea graminifolia; Chamaedorea pinnatifrons; Chamaedorea sartorii; and Chamaedorea tepejilote (you already mentioned). These all have another armful of botanic names but these are the most recently accepted ones. All of the pacaya seem to have the edible male flowers usually cooked in batter.
    Do you harvest the products of the cohune (I assume it is Attalea cohune )?
    How serious is lethal yellowing in your area? Does it only affect Cocos nucifera?
     
  11. ho-hum

    ho-hum New Member

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  12. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Hi Jeff,

    the c. tepijilote is locally called pacaya, the c. ernesti angustii is called wish-willy, or xate, and has an export market. Only the tepijilote is called pacaya here. The c. elegans is native to Belize, too (being bordered by Mexico to North, and Guatemala to West and South).

    Most of the chamaedoras have edible male flowers, and they are cooked with eggs, steamed or boiled, or fried in batter. They have a bitter taste, but are excellent.

    Cahune palm is used for thatch in Maya communities, along with bay leaf. On our "infrastructure" page (web site recently updated), we have a picture of a thatch roofed researcher cabin here. The nuts are used to make cooking oil, or burned as fuel (we use a lot of it when its dry as it has a lot of embodied energy).

    The heart is a local delicacy, "cahune cabbage".

    As you suggested, the species name is cohune attalea.

    Lethal yellowing only seems to affect the Panamanian Tall coconut. Other varieties of cocos nucifera, like the Malayan and Phillipine Dwarf are immune. We also have some "Maypan" coconuts which are crosses of Panamanaian and Malayan varieties 1ith reputed %95 immunity to lethal yellowing.

    The dwarfs are considered "ornamental" or "water" cocnuts, but they give plenty of meat and oil, just not as much as the Panamanian Tall.

    Our peach pamls have just flowered for the first time, so we will have to learn how to prepare it. It is not native to Belize.

    Do you have peach palm?

    C
     
  13. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    some month ago I didn't even knew that there are trees whith edible leaves!
    For me a tree was only to bear fruit.
    Well; I come from a cold country and perhaps there are no trees with edible leaves or legumes.
    It would be a good idea planting this kind of tree in third worl cities to provide people wioth nutritients.
     
  14. permacultureplants

    permacultureplants Junior Member

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    Thanks for all that info Christopher. Our climate seems a little too cold and wet in winter to support peach palm although I have only tried it so far from seed. They germinate and grow a little but then the growth slows in winter and they die. I do intend bringing in some developed plants from Queensland and trying them, the other idea is to try getting seed from higher altitudes.
    Here's what I have on them if it helps with your what to do with them question.
    Bactris gasipaes
    Bactris caribaea
    Bactris ciliata
    Bactris insignis
    Bactris speciosa
    Bactris utilis
    Guilielma caribaea
    Guilielma chontaduro
    Guilielma ciliata
    Guilielma gasipaes
    Guilielma insignis
    Guilielma speciosa
    Guilielma utilis
    Martinezia ciliata


    amarija
    cachipay
    cano-chi
    canuchi
    chima
    chonta
    chonta de castilla
    chonta duro
    chonta pala
    chontaduro
    chunda duru
    chunda
    elé
    elé-pa
    gea
    huanima
    o’ma
    ö-nê
    pahua chunda
    parépou
    paripie
    paripoe
    peach palm
    pejibaye
    pifayo
    pijiguao
    pijuayo
    pipiré
    pipiri
    pisbae
    puca chunda
    pupunha
    pupuña palm
    quillu chunda
    shalin chunda
    tewe
    uwi
    woy

    No longer known in the wild but was probably from the Andes of Ecuador, Peru or Colombia but is now an important crop of many areas \ considered by some a selected form of Bactris macana \ fast growing, subcanopy palm to 20m with multiple trunks to 150mm diameter \ usually spiny, suckering feather palm \ inferred tropical rain forest, to 2000m \ prefers heavy soil and where rainfall is 2500mm or less \ tolerant of dry seasons \ up to 1200m elevation in Costa Rica \ high yielding palms \ smooth, red fruit to 50mm diameter is delicious and high in starch, fat and protein with a small seed \ can be eaten raw, but usually eaten cooked (boiled to tenderness in salted water, roasted, or made into a soup) \ a meal called farinha is produced from the fruit \ fruit can be smoked and stored \ drink (chicha) made from grated fruit \ fruits are a well-balanced food, being high in protein and carbohydrate \ one plant yields up to 12kg (300) orange-red fruit, (3.4 tonne dry fruit/ha/yr) \ fruit (pijuayo) eaten boiled, roasted or dried \ dried fruit pulp used as a flour substitute or reconstituted into a paste \ Embera-Chami Indians prohibit pregnant women from eating fruit \ because of spiny trunks, fruit usually harvested using a stick with a hook or often Inga spp. or Cecropia spp. are planted beside the palm to provide a climbing framework \ edible seed kernel, tasting somewhat like coconut, is ground and used in drinks resembling a creamy wine or boiled and eaten as potatoes \ oil of macanilla is extracted from the seeds and edible \ fruit after boiling in salt water will keep for up to six months \ beverage called chicha de aguaje is made from fermented fruit \ fruit can be dried and made into flour \ alcoholic beverage called coquelo or coquillo is made from the sap \ used as oilseed \ heart of palm vegetable crop often taken from thinnings (multi-stemmed so do not need to sacrifice whole plant) \ young flowers chopped and added to omelettes \ salt substitute from cooking the spadix \ some seedless varieties exist and are propagated vegetatively \ plant provides walking sticks, bows and fishing rods \ trunk yields a black, hard wood used for handles, yokes, clubs, bows, arrows, parts of musical instruments, furniture and ornaments \ thorny stems effective fence barrier \ spines used for tattooing \ nutritional composition of pejibaye per 100 grams of edible portion is: Water - 36.4 - 60.9%, Fat - 3.10-8.17g, Protein - 0.340-0.633g, Ash - 0.72-1.64g, Calcium - 8.9-40.4mg, Iron - 0.85-2.25mg, Phosphorous - 33.5-55.2mg, Carotene - 0.290-2.760mg, Thiamin - 0.037-0.070mg, Riboflavin - 0.099-0.154mg, Niacin - 0.667-1.945mg, Ascorbic acid - 14.8-41.4mg \ protein must be supplemented with other foods if pejibaye is to be used as a staple \ oil content seems to increase with age of tree \ widely cultivated in tropical America as forage for pigs and poultry \ skin of fruit and male flowers are made into chicken feed \ fruit is used as a fish bait \ begins to bear fruit at 6-8 years and has an economic life of 75 years or more \ leaves as stockfeed \ trunks have potential in paper manufacture \ wood used on a local level for buildings, weaving looms, spindles, bed-boards, bows, arrows and tool handles, bows, arrow points, spears, blowguns, darts, fish-traps and fishing hooks \ hollowed trunks are used to make water conduits \ green dye for cloth and bark from extract of young leaves \ at present there is a lack of superior cultivars for commercial plantations \ fruit local product \ hearts exported \ intercropping with cacao, coffee and banana has been successful \ good shade plants \ seed looses viability quickly \ propagation from fresh seed which usually germinates in 2-4 months \ clones can be propagated from young basal sprouts \ spineless strains are being propagated.
     
  15. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    I have a couple of peach palms. Got them from Frankies nursery on Oahu, they are supposed to be the thornless type. I'm going to transplant them into their spots this winter if it ever really starts to rain.
    I think I first read about this plant in your book Jeff! I've been excited about its potential ever since. I wonder if I will be at this place long enough to see these plants fruit and try to eat them...
     
  16. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    Nice entry, Jeff! I like the list of uses, habitats, etc. Very impressive. Now I know what to do with the fruit, spadex, leaves, trunk and spines!

    Is Orbignya cohune the same as cohune attalea (new name, same species)? I just found a paper that calls the palm we have here Orbignya cohune, which means my earlier thought that it was the other palm would be wrong.

    Richard, a spineless peach palm? Whats the fun in that? The danged thing is dangerous! Live dangerously!
     
  17. Richard on Maui

    Richard on Maui Junior Member

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    Yeh. Well that's why I have planted 20 or so Guadua's around the farm! Damn those things hurt. Oh, and with the same order that we got the Peach palms, we got four Bali Salak palms. They are just starting to get their spines, and they will probably make up for the lack of spines on the other Peach palms. They look kinda vicious.
     
  18. christopher

    christopher Junior Member

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    The Permi Punk Rock Brigade, with pierced palms and torn pants, and tubber boots....

    Returning to moringa. We have several trees that flower, but do not set seed. It used to be that the leaf cutter ants did them in, stripping the trees of leaves and flowers, and no fruit set occured, but this year the leaf cutters were bussy wreaking destruction elsewhere, and still, NO seed! Is there, maybe, some climatic factor (too much rain?) that could cause all the flowers to drop? Is it a "need-a-male-female-plant" thing? Help me!
     
  19. permacultureplants

    permacultureplants Junior Member

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    Salacca spines

    You got it right Richard:
    [​IMG]
    Salacca spines
    They all hurt. But also make effective barrier fences.
     
  20. hedwig

    hedwig Junior Member

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    back to mornifera

    the tree seems to be fantastic, I looked in several seed catalogues: eden greenpatch... but they don not list it.
     

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