Origin
Arecanut (Areca catechu) is the areca palm or areca nut palm, (Filipino: bunga, Malay: pinang, Malayalam: adakka), a species of palm which grows in much of the tropical Pacific, Asia, and parts of east Africa. The palm is believed to have originated in either Malaysia or the Philippines. Areca is derived from a local name from the Malabar Coast of India and catechu is from another Malay name for this palm, caccu.
This palm is often erroneously called the betel tree because its fruit, the areca nut, is often chewed along with the betel leaf, a leaf from a vine of the Piperaceae family.
It is a medium-sized and graceful palm tree, growing straight to 20 meter tall, with a trunk 10–15 cm in diameter. The leaves are 1.5–2 m long, pinnate, with numerous, crowded leaflets. It is also known as puga in Sanskrit and Supari in Marathi and Gujarati.
