Exploring the Betel Leaf and Areca nut Garden or I should say a mini Forest!!

Betel leaf and Areca nut are important cash crops in rural Bangladesh. These tropical plants mostly grow together, in the backyard or on farms in rural areas.

You may have heard that our locals consume them together daily. If you see the red strain on the teeth of natives, you know that's from chewing betel and nuts!

I had the opportunity to explore the betel leaf and areca nut garden in recent days. Let me share my experience.

The betel plant is a kind of creeper leaf plant. People usually grow them together with the areca nut tree in their backyard. Because the areca nut has tall straight trunks, without any branches which help the creeper to grow smoothly. But on farms, they grow them in with the support of long sticks.

If you are wondering how people eat this, then here's the Wiki Link about this. You will find and see the detail there.

Look, how they creep into the trees! Isn't it fascinating?

The garden was so big, I couldn't see the other end. It was like a mini forest with so many other trees. Also, the place was muddy, with very low sunlight because of the tree shades, which makes the place a bit scary. I was feeling uncomfortable mostly because of the snacks. I heard that king Kobra loves to be around such a garden.

It was the backyard of my aunt's relative. As the native also consumes betel and nuts, people around the neighborhood pick some leaves whenever they feel necessary, but no one bothers about it because of the huge amount of the production. Every year they sell a good amount of betel and nut from the garden or I would say forest.

The whole ground of full of Ferns, fallen leaves of different trees, and other garden weeds. It was such an interesting place. As I had no experience exploring such a garden, I quite enjoyed my stay there. The owner insists us to pick some leaves from the plant and enjoy them with areca nuts. I'm not very fond of betel and nut but I tried it that day.

The garden was kind of a place for all kinds of random trees. They said that betel and the nuts plant don't require any active care and grow pretty well with other trees around. So they just leave it like this and harvest the products whenever they need them. Otherwise, they usually don't visit the garden.

That was quite an experience. I hope you enjoy seeing the photos as well. Have a good day, everyone.