Sago misnomer as cycads are not palms. Extracting edible starch from the sago cycad requires special care due to the poisonous nature of cycads. Cycad sago is used for many of the same purposes as palm sago. The fruit of palm trees from which the sago is produced is not allowed to ripen fully. The full ripening completes the life cycle of the tree and exhausts the starch reserves in the trunk to produce the seeds. It leaves a hollow shell and causes the tree to die. The palms are cut down when they are about 15 years old, just before
Castilla (plant) been extracted. The vernacular name is "Panama rubber tree" or "castilloa rubber". The pre-Columbian MesoAmericans used the latex of this plant to make a ball used in a ceremonial game. Rubber Castilla (plant) Castilla (sometimes incorrectly spelled "Castilloa") is a genus of 3 species of large trees in the flowering plant family Moraceae. The genus is native to Central and South America. This genus is named after Juan Diego del Castillo (d. 1793), a Spanish botanist who was a friend of Vicente Cervantes, who chose the name in his friend's honor. "Castilla" species are monoecious or dioecious trees up to