In one of my previous posts, I told you about the amazing medicinal plant Lysichiton americanus which has big leaves up to 135 cm length.

Today, I’m telling you about the plant which has longest leaves in the world.

Raffia palm is that amazing plant having biggest leaves up to 82 feet length and 9.84 feet width. Height of these plants are found up to 52.5 feet.

Raffia palm is one of the twenty species of palms belong to tropical regions of Africa (especially  Madagascar). These are specifically known for their longest known compound pinnate leaves in the world with 25 m (82.38 ft) length and 3 m (9.84 ft) width. Pinnately compound leaves have the leaflets arranged along the main or mid-vein.

Raffia palms plants are found in two types, i.e. monocarpic and hapaxanthic. Monocarpic plants are the plants which flowering once in their lifetime, produce fruits and seeds and then die. Hapaxanthic plants are the plants in which the individual stems die after flowering and seeding, but the root system remain alive and send new stems regularly.

Raffia palms are used for many purposes by human because of good strength of its fiber. Raffia fibers are mainly used in construction industry and textile industry in their local environment.

Watch the following video in which an entrepreneur made a car from Raffia fiber, because of its amazing strength.

Use of Raffia Fibers in Construction Industry:

• Ropes
• Sticks
• Supporting beams
• Roof coverings

Use of Raffia Fibers in Textile Industry:

• Woven Hats
• Shoes
• Decorative Mats
• Household Items
• Craft Items
• Woven Lampshades

Raffia fiber is also used as natural rope and mostly used in grafting trees to hold the different parts of the trees together.

In addition to this, Raffia palm is also used to prepare cultural wine from the sap which contains sugar in good amount. This wine is prepared by collecting the sap of Raffia palm in traditional way by cutting a box in the top of the palm and suspending a large gourd.

Sap of Raffia palm is the milky white liquid contains sugar. This raw sap is used as cultural drinks in many societies. It can also be distilled into strong liquors.

Photo Source: 1. Raffia palm Trees
2. Craft Item Made From Raffia Fiber
Author: Sonia Goyal