areca nut palm, betel nut palm, pinang

A very unusual spindly "pohon pinang" (Indonesian) or areca nut tree, with ripe fruit. They are almost always upright and straight. Areca catechu is a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. The palm is believed to have originated in either Malaysia or the Philippines. This palm is often called the "betel nut tree" because its fruit, the areca nut, is often chewed along with the betel leaf, a leaf from a vine of the Piperaceae family. The areca nut is popular for chewing throughout some Asian countries, such as Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and India and the Pacific, notably Papua New Guinea as well as Papua, Indonesia, where it is very popular.