Saudi Gazette runs an interesting piece on date production. Date trees, it appears, come in both male and female forms. To produce dates, you need both, though one male tree can pollinate up to 50 female trees. But male trees produce their flowers, in huge pods, several weeks before the female trees open. This means that to get a good crop, pollination must be done by hand. Luckily, the flower pods of male trees seem to be transportable and open to being stored for a while.
The result is a market for male palm flowers. That’s a pretty specialized, niche market as the world goes, but it’s clearly critical for date production. And date production is not only traditional to Saudi Arabia, it’s also a major (if not the major) agricultural export crop.
High demand in EP for male date palm flowers
Faisal Aboobacker PonnaniDAMMAM – Farmers from Al-Ahsa and Saihat are capitalizing on the considerable increase in the demand for male date palm flowers in the Eastern Province.
In March and April, date palm flowers start to blossom with each palm forming about 10-15 large golden-brown flower pods.
The demand for male date palm is high during this season as farmers use them for pollination with their female date palm.
The male date palm flower pod is called “Nabath” in Arabic which is selling in Damman now at SR150. However, the demand would gradually decrease remarkably cutting the prices as well.
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March:09:2010 - 11:51
Interesting, rather like holly bushes which must be planted in boy-girl pairs to bear berries, or else they remain infertile/sterile.
Of course I thought the title meant something else! LOL
March:10:2010 - 02:27
It’s articles like these that make me realize that what seems to me like common knowledge we learn at school is something quite fascinating to others. Thanks John.
March:10:2010 - 03:31
I second what M said, and add a link to a picture of a man pollenating (or collecting pollen) a palm tree, the use a rope around their waist and do some spiderman walking up the tree type of moves. I never saw it live, but in school books and on TV.
http://www.elaph.com/elaphweb/Resources/images/Reports/2009/8/week2/3.jpg
March:10:2010 - 07:21
Hmmmm Good to know that this is studied in school and is common knowledge in Saudi. Some of us were learning about how to build an igloo (Grade 3 Social Studies) the steel industry (Grade 5 Social Studies), cotton growing (Grade 7 Home Economics), and transhumance and that the grapes grow on the south side of the Alps (high school Geography–Switzerland). The latter is very useful knowledge for landscape architecture AKA planting the home garden. LOL
Thanks for the pics, Qusay.
March:10:2010 - 07:24
I suppose that if I’d grown up on date farms in California this would be old news, too, but most Americans see dates only in little, expensive boxes in the supermarket. Usually, it’s only one variety (Deglat Noor) and not in the best of conditions. I suspect–but have absolutely no knowledge–that pollination is done mechanically, too!
March:15:2010 - 15:22
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