Literacy International - What Can We Do With a Palm Tree? - and other useful plants

Jul 17, 2026

Upload by Oliver

A practical, reader-friendly guide from Literacy International explores how communities in Liberia use the palm tree and related useful plants in everyday life. It explains how different parts—nuts, kernels, leaves, trunks, and the inner “cabbage”—support food, cooking, trade, tools, shelter, hygiene, and practical problem-solving. It also describes further uses of the piassava tree and vines, linking natural materials to rest, farming work, building, and long-term protection from rain and wind.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLifestyle

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time20 min

What Can We Do With a Palm Tree?

Uses of Palm Nuts and Palm Oil

Uses of Kernels

Uses of Palm Leaves

Uses of Palm Logs

Uses of the “Cabbage” and Other Palm Parts

Piassava Tree (Bamboo) and Vines

Literacy International: What Can We Do With a Palm Tree?(and other useful plants) Copyright © 2018 Literacy International [info@LiteracyInternational.net](info@LiteracyInternational.net) English Agriculture Literacy International: What Can We Do With a Palm Tree?(and other useful plants) Written originally in Liberia, West Africa Copyright © 2018 Literacy International [info@LiteracyInternational.net](info@LiteracyInternational.net) English Copyright © 2018, Literacy International [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) You are free to make commercial use of this work. You may adapt and add to this work, but you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. You must keep the copyright and credits for authors, illustrators, etc. You can make many things out of one thing. A palm tree is just one thing. But men and women can make more than 35 different things from a palm tree. The old people in Liberia showed us. This is good. The palm tree is one thing, but it has many parts. We can use these parts. We can use the nuts, the kernels, the leaves, the trunks--and that food far inside the tree. We call that the “cabbage.” What can we do with palm nuts? We can cut them and eat them. We can sell them, too. We can make palm butter and eat it. Or we can call everyone, together have a “kuu,” and beat the nuts. (A kuu is a team of menor women doing a farm job.) We will have palm oil then. We can make many things from palm oil. We may cook greens with palm oil, or okra or fish. Cook them together and this makes good soup. We can put this soup on our rice. Sometimes we cook bread in palm oil. Or, we cook plantain in palm oil. Palm oil can help our bodies. When our backs hurt, we can rub them with palm oil. Then the palm oil will bring us rest. And after we take a bath, we may rub palm oil on our bodies. This can make our bodies shine. We can do all these things with palm oil. They are good things. What can we do with the kernels? We can make another kind of oil from them. It is called kernel oil. We eat it on rice, or with okra and bitter ball (a small bitter fruit in Liberia) . We can put it on sores or wounds. If a person is cut, he can put kernel oil on his cuts. Our fathers used kernel oil in their lanterns, when they had no kerosene. Sometimes we do not make oil out of the kernels at all. We just leave them as they are, and use them on roads or bath fences (a fence around a bathing area) . Or we open them and eat them. Or we sell them to traders. What can we do with the leaves of the palm tree? We use them for helping us sleep. We put them in mattresses and lay the mattresses on our beds. We use them for helping us get food. We make thread from one part of the leaf. Then we use the thread to make nets. We use another part of the leaf to make brooms. Palm leaves keep the sun and wind off our rice. The thatch on rice kitchens (roofs) comes from palm leaves. And we use palm leaves for carrying loads. A “kinjah”can hold plenty of rice or cola. (A kinjah is a long, narrow container made of woven palm leaves.) What can we do with the logs from palm trees? There may be water on the road. If the water is very deep, we will not want to walk in it. We can lay palm logs across it. What can we do with the “cabbage”? We eat it! Sometimes there is not enough rice or cassava to eat. Then we can find a small palm tree. We cut out the inside part. It is white, and looks like cassava. It makes fine soup. We can use still another part of the palm tree. This part holds the palm nuts together. We can put it in water for a long time, and then pull out the rotten parts. We can dry the rest of it, and put it near our beds. When we rub our feet on it, this will make our feet clean. It is fine that we can use the palm tree in so many ways. The old people were wise to think of all these ways. The piass

FAQs

How can people use palm nuts in daily life?

They can be cut and eaten, sold, or processed into palm butter. Communities can also organize a “kuu” to beat nuts and produce palm oil.

What are the benefits and uses of palm oil?

Palm oil can be used for cooking soups and foods, and it can help with body comfort by being rubbed on sore backs. After bathing, it can be applied to make the body “shine.”

How are palm leaves and the piassava tree used for work and shelter?

Palm leaves can be used in mattresses for sleep, to make thread for nets, to make brooms, and as thatch and carriers for loads. The piassava tree provides sticks for walls, benches, tables, and chicken houses, while leaves can form thatch that protects from rain and wind.

Jul 17, 2026

Upload by Oliver