Useful plants

Cassava and various tubers and vegetables are indispensable today for feeding the island's people. Bamboo is omnipresent and one of the most important raw materials. Coconuts, sugar palms and rice are among the oldest cultivated plants of the tropics.

In our descriptions the English name is given first, then the Indonesian and finally the Latin name.

Bamboo – Bambu – dendrocalamus giganteus

Bamboo belongs to the grasses and is the largest species of its genus. The clumps live for many decades, while the canes can be harvested regularly after one to two years. Bamboo emerges from the ground already at its final thickness – some varieties grow 30 to 50 centimetres a day in their first phase, and giant bamboo reaches up to 30 metres. Bamboo flowers only rarely, often just once in 50 to 100 years. In Asia bamboo is used in every area of life and is one of the fastest-renewing raw materials available to man.

Chayote – Jepang – sechium edule

The mild fruits of this fast-growing squash are an important vegetable on Bali today, grown mainly in the island's mountain regions.

Coconut palm – Kelapa – cocos nucifera

On Bali, oil is the main product of the coconut's flesh; Balinese cuisine uses it for frying. Green coconuts are cracked open and their "milk" – an almost clear liquid – drunk fresh. Grated coconut is sprinkled over sweets.

Sugar palm – Enau – arenga pinnata

Palm sugar and palm wine (tuak) are extracted from the sap of the male shoots. The fruits are served with shaved ice and bright pink sugar syrup. The coarse fibres at the base of the fronds are used on Bali for thatching temple roofs; brooms and brushes are made from them too.

Lontar palm – Lontar (Ental) – latania lontaroides

In earlier times the leaves of this tall palm were used as writing material. Such "lontar books" are made today only in the East Balinese village of Tenganan.

Pala tree – Pohon Pala

These very straight, branchless trees, up to 60 metres tall, were planted several hundred years ago at Sangeh in central Bali. Their fruits contain a resin used for making incense. Today several hundred monkeys romp about this "pala forest".

Achiote – bixa orellana

This small shrub-like tree is grown on Bali purely as an ornamental. The seeds of the ripe fruits contain the strong dye bixin.

Rice – Padi – oryza sativa

Bali's most important crop: wet rice has been grown in terraces on Bali for around 1,000 years. Read more on our page about rice farming in Bali.

More useful plants

Peanut (kacang tanah, arachis hypogaea), sweet potato (katela rambat), cassava (katela pohon, manihot esculenta) and tannia (keladi, xanthosoma sagittifolium) are further important field crops of the island.