Betel Nut Palm

A slender palm (Areca catechu) native to South and Southeast Asia, cultivated for its seed, the areca or betel nut, which is sliced and wrapped with slaked lime in a betel leaf to form a chewed stimulant preparation used across South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific for millennia. India is the largest producer and consumer, and the crop is also economically significant in Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Taiwan and the Philippines, grown both as a smallholder cash crop and in larger plantations. Chewing betel nut preparations carries well-documented health risks, but the crop remains agriculturally and culturally significant across much of its growing range.