Heart of palm, also called
palm heart, chonta, palmito, palm cabbage, swamp cabbage, or
burglar's thigh, is a
vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing
bud of certain
palm trees (notably the
coconut (
Cocos nucifera), Palmito Juçara (
Euterpe edulis),
Açaí palm (
Euterpe oleracea),
sabal (
Sabal spp.), pupunha and
pejibaye (
Bactris gasipaes) palms). Harvesting of many non-cultivated or wild single-stemmed palms results in palm tree death (e.g.
Geonoma edulis). However, other palm species are clonal or multi-stemmed plants (e.g.
Prestoea acuminata,
Euterpe oleracea) and moderate harvesting will not kill the entire clonal palm. Heart of palm may be eaten on its own, and often it is eaten in a
salad.