Produces a small nut covered with a soft golden colored fruit twice a year, each tree in its own cycle, so fruit is available all year round. Some parrots in the Tropics choose it as a main diet. Native of Brazil (the Hyacinth Macaw loves them); it grows outside in Florida and Southern California. Who likes them? Macaws, Greys, Cockatoos, Amazons (acclimation for some), other birds. What's it like? Outer cover is sticky, sweet, fibrous, very nutritious and high in palm oil, Vitamin E, A and Beta carotene. Some parrots will chew for 20 min. on just one. The nut inside is small and hard. Most birds can't crack it. If the fruit and nut is hit with a heavy hammer or axe, the birds will eat the little nut inside the shell. Hammer gets sticky. The oil, it appears, is not fattening. If fruit is green, refrigerate it to keep it from drying out. Freeze what you can't use in 2 weeks, for later.

Pandanus (pan DAY - nus) - Webster: Any plant of the genus Pandanus comprising tropical trees and shrubs, esp. of the islands of Malay Archipelago and the Indian and Pacific Oceans, having a palm-like or branched stem, long, narrow, rigid, spirally arranged leaves, and aerial roots, and bearing edible fruit; a screw pine. The word is Malay - pandan.

The female trees only produce the tightly packed round clusters in a globe-like structure. One cluster weighs between 4 to 8 lbs. Each globe may contain lobes with as many as 300 seeds. The outer covering of each seed lobe of four seeds is fibrous, but all edible. The small seeds resemble pine nuts. After you get it, the center part of the globe will begin to dry in 2 weeks enough for the lobes to drop off. The whole globe can be chopped in half to remove the lobes easier and earlier. The lobes should be refrigerated. Good source of fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals. Fat content is low. A large Macaw can take 10 minutes or more to chew on one lobe and its seeds. The seeds come off a fleshy center. Wild parrots have been seen eating it. It is sweet and sticky when ripe. You might wish to cut it in small pieces and try it on your birds. Trying something new is not always accepted. If mold appears as globe is drying, wash it off with diluted bleach,, rinse and dry.

Getting your birds in the palm motif: Hangers, chews, mangos, coconuts, citrus, nuts, check out: Richard Sawyer of Naples, Florida. Ships them. Picks them right off the tree and boxes them. Should be eaten within 2 weeks. Freeze them for later use. Richard Sawyer, 275 2nd Avenue South, Naples, FL 34102. (941) 430-0995 www.savethewave.com/connie