Red Kaong
Sweet Preserve
Sugar Palm Fruit also known as Kaong in the Philippines is a tall, unbranched and solitary palm which grows to the height of 12 to 20 meters having a stout trunk of 30 to 60 cm diameter. Trunk has distinct bases of broken leaves and long black fibres top by dense crown of leaves.
Leaves are pinnate, ascending, 6-10 meters long and the basal part of the petiole is covered with sheath of stout and black fibers. Leaflets are 160 on each side, linear and about 1.5 to 1.8 meters long. Tip is lobed and variously toothed and base is 2 auricled and the lower surface is white or pale. An inflorescence is unisexual, axillary and pendulous having stout and peduncle bearing female flowering spikes at the top and male flowering spikes lower down the peduncle and appearing later.
Flowers are trimerous having 3-lobed tubular corolla. Fruits are rounded or ellipsoid drupe measuring 5 to 7 cm in diameter and is green when immature that turns yellow and then gradually black containing two to three black seeds.
