Sago and New Guinea and is the primary source of sago. It tolerates a wide variety of soils and may reach 30 meters in height (including the leaves). Several other species of the genus "Metroxylon", particularly "Metroxylon salomonense" and "Metroxylon amicarum", are also used as sources of sago throughout Melanesia and Micronesia. Sago palms grow very quickly, in clumps of different ages similar to bananas, one sucker matures, then flowers and dies. It is replaced by another sucker, with up to 1.5 m of vertical stem growth per year. The stems are thick and are either self-supporting or have a moderate
Sago of raw sago are imported each year into Malaysia to support the keropok lekor industry. In 1805, two captured crew members of the shipwrecked schooner "Betsey" were kept alive until their escape from an undetermined island on a diet of sago. Any starch can be pearled by heating and stirring small aggregates of moist starch, producing partly gelatinized dry kernels which swell but remain intact on boiling. Pearl sago closely resembles pearl tapioca. Both are typically small (about 2 mm diameter) dry, opaque balls. Both may be white (if very pure) or colored naturally grey, brown or black, or artificially