Palm

Palms were a botanical family of trees found various places across Toril.

Banana
The banana palm was a variety of palm tree that grew a fruit of the same name. They typically grew in tropical regions such as the island chain Steaming Isles.

Beetle
The beetle palm was a variety of palm tree that could be found growing in the midwood area of the forest of Cormanthor. They could grow to be over tall, but averaged about  and took their name from their smooth, black bark, which resembled a beetle's shell. The wood was oily and burned easily, with less smoke than other woods. When freshly cut, the wood was a lackluster brown that lightened to a warm tan as it dried. Beetle palm wood was strong but became brittle as it aged and had a tendency to break under stress into segments from long so it was not usually chosen as a construction material.

The fronds of the beetle palm grew in clusters and were thin, jagged, and sometimes mistaken for branches instead of leaves. Once a year the tree produced about a dozen plum-sized nuts that grew at the base of the fronds. They had a soft outer flesh that covered a smooth, black nut that had a bitter taste. The nuts usually dropped to the forest floor after the first snow of winter. The wood of the beetle palm had no magical properties, but the nuts were an exceptionally good substitute for the material component of the goodberry spell.

Coconut
The coconut palm was a variety of palm tree that grew a hard-shell fruit of the same name. They typically grew in tropical regions such as Maztica, Mad Monkey Island, as well as the island chains Jazayir al-Sartan, Nada al-Hazan, and the Steaming Isles. Occasionally they grew in desert regions, such as the Desert of Desolation and the orchards of the fortress Sarahin.

In Zakhara, some were known to harvest the wood of its trunk for use in ships.

Date
The date palm was a variety of palm tree that grew a fruit of the same name. Some were known to grow in tropical regions, such as the island chain Nada al-Hazan and the Methwood. Others were known to grow in desert regions, such as Calimshan, the orchards of the fortress Sarahin, the Oasis of the Golden Falcon, and oases in Anauroch.

Grenade
The grenade palm was a variety of palm tree that grew only in the Desert of Desolation, around the Tomb of Martek and Pyramid of Amun-Re. They typically grew to around tall and produced a fruit that bore a resemblance to pineapples.

These fruits were highly volatile and would unleash a violent explosion upon hitting the ground. Even falling while carrying the fruit, or bumping into it, was likely to cause an explosion. The grenade palm was believed to have evolved this trait as a means of dispersing its seeds at great distances. However, grenade palms were known to lose their explosive quality if removed from their native land, thus suggesting that the trait was magical in nature.

Mangrove
The mangrove palm was a variety of palm tree that grew a fruit of the same name. They typically grew in swamps of tropical regions such as the Steaming Isles, the island chain Jazayir al-Sartan, and the island chain Nada al-Hazan.

Usages
Some general uses of palm trees, regardless of what variety they were, included the following:
 * In the land of Chult, some people were known to use palm trees as a construction material, while some tabaxi were known to construct small crude shields out of the leaves of palm trees. Chultans were also known to harvest a sort of wax from the leaves of their region's palm trees.
 * In northern Malatra and the Kuong Kingdom, palm tree leaves were typically used when constructing village huts.
 * In tropical regions, barbarians and fishermen were occasionally known to craft narrow rafts from strips of palm tree wood. These rafts would utilize a half-dozen palm leaves as sails to ride the wind currents.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Ironhelm • The Council of Blades