Kenangan

Ngubud kenangan
Photo by J.Kokshoorn (Dec 2003)

Common Name/s

Kelabit

Kenangan (Kanangan)

Kenangan Buda'

Kenangan Sia'

English

Bornean Sago Palm

Bahasa Malaysia

Sagu

Scientific name

• Eugeissonia utilis ⁽¹⁾

Uses

1. A most unusual, densely clustering, large palm that grows to about 20 m (67 ft.) tall. Native to the island of Borneo, it forms extensive thickets in tropical rain or heath forest. The suckering trunks are supported by a large number of strong stilt roots. The large crown bears numerous upright to spreading leaves with spiny midribs and elegantly arching leaflets. Each trunk in a cluster flowers only once with a large terminal inflorescence. The fruits are large and covered in small, fringed scales. The seeds are protected by a very hard shell. All parts of the palm are used extensively by local people for construction purposes and thatching. The starchy pith of the trunk is extracted as sago. ⁽²⁾
2. Only very seldom do the Kelabits extract the sago from the palm, they prefer to eat the young palm shoots, eaten as vegetable⁽¹⁾ (ubud kenangan)
3. The palm wood (usually of the dead palm) is host to the edible larvae (u'et kenangan)⁽¹⁾, considered a delicacy.
4. The leaves may be used as roofing material (apo kenangan), but this is rarely seen nowadays.⁽¹⁾
5. The leaf rachis is used as pith flight on the langan.⁽¹⁾
6. The dead leaves are used as bee repellent on honey collecting trips⁽¹⁾
7. The leaves are medicinal, these are plaited together to form a little container to cook rice. This is good for chilren to eat.⁽¹⁾

References

1. Ethnobotany of the Iban & Kelabit by Hanne Christensen
2. www.rarepalmseeds.com