Heart of palm

High school (ages 12+)
Food & Cooking

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/heart-of-palm

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific classification?Inner core and growing bud of certain palm species
2. What is the primary cultivated species?Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes)
3. Why do farmers grow peach palm instead of cutting wild palms?Peach palm can grow many stems from one root and keeps producing hearts, so the tree doesn’t die. This makes harvesting more sustainable.
4. How is heart of palm harvested?Workers carefully pull the inner core from the tree’s crown. It is hard work and can kill the tree if not grown specially.

Apical Meristem: The actively dividing tissue at the tip of a plant shoot or root responsible for growth.
Polycarpic: A plant that produces fruit or flowers over multiple seasons or years.
Domestication: The process of adapting wild plants or animals for human use through selective breeding.
Biodiversity Loss: The decline in the variety of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or the entire Earth.