Hyphaene thebaica (L.) Mart.
Eng.: Dum palm, Egyptian doum palm, gingerbread palm. Spa.: Palmera dum. Fre.: Palmier doum d’Égypte. Ara.: Doam, dum, al-dūm. Tamahaq: Azgelm, taggeyt, tagayit, ikokkan; the fruit: ikokan.
Tree up to 20 m in height, evergreen, dioecious, with a trunk branched dichotomously 1-4 (8) times, dark grey, fairly smooth but with scars from the fallen leaves clearly marked, forming rings. Leaves bunched in 20-30, forming tufts at the apex of the branches, with a webbed leaf blade c. 1 m wide and with 20 to 25 divisions, with flattened petiole, canaliculate and thick, retrorse thorns throughout its length. Inflorescence a spadix up to 1.2 m long, branched, each branch surrounded at the base by a cylindrical and acute spathe and with several racemes arranged digitally with many flowers each. Flowers unisexual, pale yellow; male flowers with a perianth in 2 whorls of 3 parts each, the external whorl trilobed and the internal whorl with 3 free parts, and 6 stamens; female flowers with a perianth in 2 whorls of 3 free pieces each, and 3 free carpels, of which 2 will abort before ripening. Fruit a drupe 6-10 × 6-8 mm, smooth, shiny brown at maturity, with a fibrous-spongy pericarp.
Flowering:
March to April.
Fruiting:
No data for this region
Habitat:
Sandy soils, slightly saline.
Distribution:
Central Africa, from Gambia to Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt, and in the Arabian Peninsula, from Yemen to Palestine and Israel. In North Africa it is found in the SW and SE of Libya (Kufra region, probably of cultivated origin), in most of Egypt, including the Sinai Peninsula, and in the N of Sudan.
Conservation status:
In principle this species does not seem threatened. Currently, it is not assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Mali it is included in its List of species that need authorization for commercial use (Decree 07-155/P-RM of 2007).