222 PHILIPPINE PALMS 
Sometimes the leaves are used to thatch houses, for which pur- 
pose they are said to be very durable; while the external parts 
of the trunk are employed for floors and rafters. In some 
parts of the Malay Archipelago, the leaflets are split into strips 
and extensively used for making mats. Parts of the petioles, 
and the midribs of the leaflets, are variously utilized for weaving 
mats and baskets; a utilization which has not been recorded 
from the Philippines. 
This palm is usually propagated by suckers that are produced 
in abundance about the base of the trunk, but it can also be 
readily grown from seeds, 
Genus NIPA Wurmb. 
This genus contains only a single species. 
NIPA FRUTICANS Wurmb. (Plates XXXVIII-XLI). NipaA. 
Local names: Anipa (Cagayan); lasd (Bulacan, Bataan, Rizal, Laguna, 
Cavite, Tayabas); nipa (Camarines, Albay, Sorsogon, Antique, Spanish- 
Filipino); sdga (Zambales); sasdé (Pampanga, Bulacan, Bataan, Rizal, 
Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Tayabas, Mindoro) ; tatd (Cagayan). 
From an economic standpoint this palm is one of the most im- 
portant in the Philippines. It is at once distinguished from 
all others in the Islands by its habit and habitat. It occurs 
along tidal streams throughout the Archipelago and is of special 
interest from the fact that it thrives only in brackish swamps. 
Nipa has a stout, creeping, subterranean stem or rhizome. The 
leaves are pinnate, 7 meters or more in length and occur in 
erect clusters. It frequently forms a dense mass of vegeta- 
tion through which it is very difficult to penetrate. 
Nipa is usually found further up streams than the trees of 
the mangrove swamps and, as a rule, forms narrow strips in 
the inland portions of water channels through which tides ebb 
and flow. The areas covered by this palm are, however, fre- 
quently very extensive. There is in Pangil Bay in Mindanao 
a single area of nipa covering 9,000 hectares. In some places 
mangrove trees have been killed or cut out and nipa planted 
over extensive Swamps. Such is the case north of Manila Bay, 
where much of the original tree growth has been entirely re- 
placed by nipa. (For a further consideration of the habitat 
of nipa, see the section of this publication dealing with 
mangrove swamps.) Nipa fruits, which are flat, about 12 centi- 
meters long by 10 centimeters broad, are crowded in a very 
characteristic, large, globose, fruiting head, which is up to 30 
centimeters in diameter and borne on a special, erect stalk. 
This plant apparently has no very definite blooming season, 
but as a general rule, at least in the provinces of Bulacan and 
