? Oil palm
African oil palm, Elaeis guineensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Arecales Family: Arecaceae Genus: Elaeis
Species
Elaeis guineensis Elaeis oleifera Image File history File links Download high resolution version (480x640, 106 KB) Name Elaeis guineensis Family Palmae Image no. ... Species Elaeis guineensis Elaeis oleifera The oil palms (Elaeis) coomprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. ... Jump to: navigation, search Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Jump to: navigation, search Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepaticophyta - liverworts Anthocerotophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants... Jump to: navigation, search Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms) are a major group of land plants. ... Orders Base Monocots: Acorus Alismatales Asparagales Dioscoreales Liliales Pandanales Family Petrosaviaceae Commelinids: Arecales Commelinales Poales Zingiberales Family Dasypogonaceae Monocotyledons or monocots are a group of flowering plants usually ranked as a class and once called the Monocotyledoneae. ... Family Arecaceae Arecales is the botanical order which includes only the palm family, Arecaceae. ... Jump to: navigation, search Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae), the Palm Family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order, Arecales. ...

The oil palms (Elaeis) coomprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. They are used in commercial agriculture in the production of palm oil. The African Oil Palm Elaeis guineensis is native to west Africa, occurring between Angola and Gambia, while the American Oil Palm Elaeis oleifera is native to tropical Central America and South America. Jump to: navigation, search Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae), the Palm Family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order, Arecales. ... Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the Oil palm tree. ... // Etymology World map showing Africa (geographically) The name Africa came into Western use through the Romans, who used the name Africa terra — land of the Afri (plural, or Afer singular) — for the northern part of the continent, as the province of Africa with its capital Carthage, corresponding to... Central America is the region of North America located between the southern border of Mexico and the northwest border of Colombia, in South America. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

Mature trees are single-stemmed, and grow to 20 m tall. The leaves are pinnate, and reach between 3-5 m long. A young tree produces about 30 leaves a year. Established trees over 10 years produce about 20 leaves a year. The flowers are produced in dense clustes; each individual flower is small, with three sepals and three petals. The fruit takes six months to mature from pollination to maturity; it comprises an oily, fleshy outer layer (the pericarp), with a single seed (kernel), also rich in oil. Unlike its relative, the Coconut Palm, the oil palm does not produce offshoots; propagation is by sowing the seeds. Jump to: navigation, search In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ... // Flower Anatomy Flowering plants are heterosporangiate (producing two types of reproductive spores) and the pollen (male spores) and ovules (female spores) are produced in different organs, but these are together in a bisporangiate strobilus that is the typical flower. ... Jump to: navigation, search Fruit stall in Barcelona, Catalonia. ... A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. ... Binomial name Cocos nucifera L. The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). ... A spin-off (or spinoff) is a new organization or entity formed by a split from a larger one such as a new company formed from a university research group. ... A seed is the ripened ovule of gymnosperm or angiosperm plants. ...

Agriculture

Oil palms are grown for their clusters of fruit, which can weigh 40-50 kg. Upon harvest, the drupe, pericarp and seeds are used for production of soap and edible vegetable oil; different grades of oil quality are obtained from the pericarp and the kernel, with the pericarp oil used mainly for cooking oil, and the kernel oil used in processed foods. Jump to: navigation, search Fruit stall in Barcelona, Catalonia. ... Jump to: navigation, search The peach is a typical drupe (stone fruit) Raspberries and Yellowjacket In botany, a drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp or skin and mesocarp or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit or stone) of hardened endocarp with a seed... Jump to: navigation, search Species Elaeis guineensis Elaeis oleifera The oil palms (Elaeis) coomprise two species of the Arecaceae, or palm family. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about a common cleaning compound. ... Jump to: navigation, search Vegetable oil or vegoil is fat extracted from plant sources, known as oil plants. ...

For each hectare of oil palm, which is harvested year-round, the annual production averages 10 tonnes of fruit, which yields 3,000 kg of pericarp oil, and 750 kg of seed kernels, which yield 250 kg of high quality palm kernel oil as well as 500 kg of kernel meal. The meal is used to feed livestock. Some varieties have even higher productivities which has led to their consideration for producing the vegetable oil needed for biodiesel. A hectare (symbol ha) is a metric unit of area. ... The word kernel has a a variety of meanings in a several fields. ... Jump to: navigation, search Sheep are commonly bred as livestock. ... Jump to: navigation, search Biodiesel sample Biodiesel is fuel made from renewable resources such as vegetable oils or animal fats. ...

The African Oil Palm was introduced to Sumatra and the Malaya area in the early 1900s; many of the largest plantations of oil palms are now in this area, with Malaysia growing over 20,000 square kilometres. Malaysia claims that in 1995 it was the world's largest producer with 51% of world production. In this area, the destruction of natural rainforest to grow oil palm plantations is an issue of major environmental concern. Jump to: navigation, search Sumatra (also spelled Sumatara and Sumatera) is the sixth largest island of the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest part of Indonesia. ... Travel guide to Malaysia from Wikitravel CIA World Factbook entry on Malaysia CIA - Disputes - International AlloExpat - Malaysia Information Center Categories: Southeast Asian countries | ASEAN member states | Malaysia | Monarchies ... // Events and Trends Technology Lawrence Hargrave makes the first stable wing design for a heavier-than-air aircraft Orville and Wilbur Wright make the first documented flight in a powered heavier-than-air aircraft Mass production of automobile Wide popularity of home phonograph Panama Canal is built by the United... // Forestry plantations A plantation of Douglas-fir in Washington, USA; note the trees of uniform size and planted in straight lines, and the lack of diversity in the ground flora In forestry, plantations of trees are typically grown as an even-aged monoculture for timber production, as opposed to a... Jump to: navigation, search Rainforest on Fatu-Hiva, Marquesas Islands A rainforest is a forested biome with high annual rainfall due to the Intertropical convergence zone. ... This article needs a complete rewrite for the reasons listed on the talk page. ...

Nutrition

Palm oil is high in vitamin K and dietary Magnesium. Palm oil contains 43 percent saturated fats, 43 percent monounsaturated fats and 13 percent polyunsaturated fats. Vitamin K denotes a group of 2-methilo-naphthoquinone derivatives. ... General Name, Symbol, Number magnesium, Mg, 12 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, Period, Block 2, 3, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 24. ... Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only saturated fatty acids. ... In nutrition, monounsaturated fats are dietary fats with one double-bonded carbon in the molecule, with all of the others single-bonded carbons. ... An unsaturated fat is a fat or fatty acid in which there is one or more double bonds between carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain. ...

Its high nutritional value means that the palm nut is eaten by a wide variety of animals, including, rather improbably, two birds of prey, the Palm Nut Vulture and the Harrier Hawk. Orders Accipitriformes     Cathartidae     Pandionidae     Accipitridae     Sagittariidae Falconiformes     Falconidae A bird of prey or raptor is a bird that hunts its food, especially one that preys on mammals or other birds. ... Binomial name Gypohierax angolensis (Gmelin, 1788) The Palm-nut Vulture (Gypohierax angolensis) is a very large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as kites, buzzards and harriers. ... Species 7 currently recognised: see text Forest falcons are members of the genus Micrastur, part of the family of the family Falconidae. ...

External links

• Malaysian Palm Oil Promotion Council (MPOPC)
• Biodiesel production
• Friends of the Earth UK: Palm oil - rainforest in your shopping
• Center for Science in the Public Interest: Cruel Oil - How Palm Oil Harms Health, Rainforest and Wildlife