Skip to main content

Salak (Salacca zalacca)

Salak or snake fruit (Salacca zalacca) is a species of palm plant in Arecaceae, dioesis, shrubs and not trunked, has many thorns, many shoots, grows into dense and strong clumps, spreads below or above the ground, often branching and 10-15 cm diameter.

S. zalacca has compound leaves, pinnate and 3-7 m long. Petiole, midrib and sapling have many long thorns, thin spines and a blackish-gray color. Minor leaves have a lanceolate shape, a pointed tip, 8x85 cm and a white underside by a waxy coating.

Dlium Salak (Salacca zalacca)

The flowers in the cob are compound, appear in the armpit of the leaf, stem, initially covered by a sheath then dry and break down like fibers. Male flowers 50-100 cm long, 4-12 cylindrical items, 7-15 cm long, reddish in the armpits of tightly arranged scales. Female flowers 20-30 cm long, stemmed long and 1-3 items.

The fruit has scaly skin, is eaten and is known as a table fruit, triangular shaped rather rounded or inverted ovoid, pointed at the base and rounded at the tip, 2.5-10 cm long, wrapped in a composition of yellow brown or shiny red brown scales.

Fruit skin has small spines that break easily at the ends of each scale. Sarcotesta is thick and yellow to whitish and has a sweet and sour taste. Each fruit has 1-3 seeds, brown to black, hard and 2-3 cm long.

Salak is planted for fresh fruit, salted, canned, chips, dodol, dates, coffee and puddings. Young fruit for juice ingredients. Young leaves and stem skin as matting material after the thorns are removed.

Thorns are impenetrable and clumps are often planted as fences. Pieces of dried petioles are also used to arm a fence or to protect a fruiting tree from the threat of mammals. Fruit is also to stop diarrhea and traditional medicinal ingredients.





Snake fruit has two varieties, S. zalacca var. zalacca from Yogyakarta and S. zalacca var. amboinensis from Bali and Ambon. At least 30 cultivars include salak pondoh, salak gading, salak kembang arum in Yogyakarta and salak bali in Bali.

Salak pondoh is cultivated on the slopes of Mount Merapi, Sleman Regency, Yogyakarta, which is known for its sweet fruit, dry texture and 2-3 seeds. Salak pondoh has various variants including pondoh super, pondoh hitam, pondoh merah, pondoh kuning, pondoh manggala and others.

Salak bali comes from Sibetan in Bali, a light brown color and tends to be bright, smooth skin scales, thick fruit, sweet, dry texture and single seeds. Salak gading comes from Yogyakarta, yellow-ivory, glossy and medium size. Salak kembang arum comes from Yogyakarta, its color is brown and there are various sizes.

Farmers reproduce snake fruit in a vegetative way where the shoots are grafted onto bamboo media and transferred to the field after they have strong roots. The land used is loose soil, free of weeds and pests. Routine pruning is done to reduce the number of shoots and old leaves. The fruit comes after the plant is 2 years old.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Subfamily: Calamoideae
Tribe: Calameae
Genus: Salacca
Species: Salacca zalacca

Popular Posts

Javan broadhead planarian (Bipalium javanum)

Cacing palu or Javan broadhead planarian ( Bipalium javanum ) is a species of animal in Geoplanidae, hermaphrodite, living on the ground, predators, often called only hammerhead or broadhead or shovel worms because of wide heads and simple copulatory organs. B. javanum has a slim stature, up to 20 cm long, up to 0.5 cm wide, head wide up to 1 cm or less, small neck, widening in the middle and the back end is rounded, all black and shiny. Javan broadhead planarians walk above ground level by raising their heads and actively looking left, right and looking up using strong neck muscles. Move swiftly, track meander, climb to get through all obstacles or make a new path if the obstacle is too high. Cacing palu track and prey on earthworms and mollusks. They use muscles and sticky secretions to attach themselves to prey to lock in. The head and ends of the body are wrapped around and continue to close the body to stop prey reactions. They produce tetrodotoxins which are very strong...

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

Prof. Weiming Zhu ironwood (Xantolis weimingii) described with completely glabrous flower crowns

NEWS - Xantolis weimingii (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) is described from Yunnan, southwest China and can be easily distinguished from its relatives by the combination of densely covered plants with ferruginous arachnoid-lanate, oblong or obovate leaves and pendulous staminodes at the base. Xantolis Raf. 1838 (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) is a small genus of trees and shrubs containing about 14 species with a distribution from the eastern Himalayas to the Philippines in tropical Asia. The genus is morphologically characterized by distinct spines, a sharp anther appendage, lanceolate lobes on the calyx and corolla, and aristate staminodes. Molecular data suggest that the genus is sister to the entire subfamily Chrysophylloideae and is a very isolated and poorly understood genus. Specimens was first collected in the Luzhijiang Valley in August 2015, but only sterile or fruiting specimens were collected. In April 2022, a specimen with flowers was finally collected in Wadie, Yuanjiang...