Kenangan

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Ngubud kenangan
Photo by J.Kokshoorn (Dec 2003)

Common Name/s

Kelabit
Kenangan (Kanangan)
Kenangan Buda'
Kenangan Sia'
English
Bornean Sago Palm
Bahasa Malaysia
Sagu

Scientific name

  • Eugeissonia utilis (1)


Uses

  1. A most unusual, densely clustering, large palm that grows to about 20 m (67 ft.) tall. Native to the island of Borneo, it forms extensive thickets in tropical rain or heath forest. The suckering trunks are supported by a large number of strong stilt roots. The large crown bears numerous upright to spreading leaves with spiny midribs and elegantly arching leaflets. Each trunk in a cluster flowers only once with a large terminal inflorescence. The fruits are large and covered in small, fringed scales. The seeds are protected by a very hard shell. All parts of the palm are used extensively by local people for construction purposes and thatching. The starchy pith of the trunk is extracted as sago. (2)
  2. Only very seldom do the Kelabits extract the sago from the palm, they prefer to eat the young palm shoots, eaten as vegetable(1) (ubud kenangan)
  3. The palm wood (usually of the dead palm) is host to the edible larvae (u'et kenangan)(1), considered a delicacy.
  4. The leaves may be used as roofing material (apo kenangan), but this is rarely seen nowadays.(1)
  5. The leaf rachis is used as pith flight on the langan.(1)
  6. The dead leaves are used as bee repellent on honey collecting trips(1)
  7. The leaves are medicinal, these are plaited together to form a little container to cook rice. This is good for chilren to eat.(1)

References

  1. Ethnobotany of the Iban & Kelabit by Hanne Christensen
  2. www.rarepalmseeds.com