Lala palm

Lalapalm · Hyphaene petersiana

The lala palm is the tropical signature of the far north, giving the Pafuri and Limpopo floodplains their distinctive look. Its sap is tapped for palm wine and its fronds are woven into baskets and mats.

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How to identify it

A fan palm with stiff, grey-green fan-shaped leaves, often in clumps of several stems or as low resprouting bushes. Where it reaches full height it shows a single tall trunk topped with a rounded head of fronds. The large brown fruit are roughly egg-shaped.

Flowers & fruit

Flowers in the warm summer months; the large brown fruit ripen slowly over many months (where browsing lets the palms mature enough to fruit).

Browsed by

Elephants browse the leaves and growing tips (often keeping the palms stunted) and eat the fruit; baboons and other animals also feed on the fallen fruit.

Where to see it in Kruger

Far north only, on the floodplains and sandy alluvium of the Luvuvhu and Limpopo rivers around Pafuri; often in open palm-dotted grassland.

Did you know

In parts of Kruger, chronic elephant browsing keeps whole populations stunted below the height needed to flower, leaving them effectively sterile even though the plants survive and resprout.

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