Hyphaene thebaica.

Botanical name: 

Hyphaene thebaica Mart. Palmae. Gingerbread Tree.

African tropics. The fruits which are produced in long clusters, each containing between one and two hundred, are beautifully polished, of a rich, yellowish-brown color and are of irregular form. In Upper Egypt, they form part of the food of the poorer classes of inhabitants, the part eaten being the fibrous, mealy husk, which tastes almost exactly like gingerbread, but its dry, husky nature renders it unpalatable.


Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World, 1919, was edited by U. P. Hedrick.