Nipa Palm

nipa palm Nypa fruticans, a palm of the region stretching from E. India to Australia. Its various parts serve almost as many uses as the coconut, from fuel and roofing through cigarette papers to sugar and toddy. When the inflorescence is growing, there is a flow of sweet sap containing sucrose up the stalk towards it, and this can be, and in former times was, tapped as a source of sugar. However, it begins to ferment at once, so that it becomes toddy almost immediately and vinegar within a couple of weeks.