From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Also palm heart, palmita. The crunchy, sweet, white core cut from the growing tips of various palm trees, used fresh (or, in North America, most often from a can) and cooked or raw in antipasto, lumpia, pie, pizza and salads, or pickled. The heart is cut out of the terminal bud from which new fronds emerge. When taken from coconut or royal palm trees (often growing wild), the operation kills them. Growing concerns about killing great numbers of wild palms in such countries as Brazil has led to more interest in the Guilielma gasipaes or peach palm. When mature, peach palms produce secondary buds from which the hearts can be harvested, leaving the tree to regenerate. Cultivation of the peach palm in Costa Rica, Florida and Hawaii is starting to provide much of the hearts of palm consumed in North America. Small farmers in South American who presently grow coca (from which cocaine is derived) are being encouraged to switch to peach palms as a viable alternative cash crop. See also swamp cabbage.
