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The article aimed to record community knowledge regarding cultivating, utilizing, and conserving tarasi fruit (Cassia javanica) in Cianjur and Sukabumi Districts, West Java. The ethnobotanical interview method was used for 22 respondents from Cilaku village, Cianjur district, and Tegal Buleud village, Sukabumi district. Respondent criteria have or have owned a tarasi tree and used it. The interview consisted of 20 questions. The data were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using the Index of Cultural Significance (ICS). The results found that ecologically, tarasi fruit was grown by the community from seed (82%), in cultivation (68%), and planted in the yard (86%). Tarasi fruit is used, among others, for cooking seasoning (38%), firewood (42%), tools (8%), and digestive medicine (12%), but the highest ICS score is for cooking seasoning (10.89). The utilization of tarasi fruit in the form of dried pods is processed into a paste. The presence of live trees in only 36.4% still used for seasoning in only 9.1%, and there has yet to be an attempt to share knowledge. The conclusion is that tarasi fruit for vegetable shrimp paste must be developed so that it has an impact on conservation.

Oil palm has been widely studied regarding growth and development, water use, productivity, and other economically relevant functions. However, not much is known about the hydraulic conductivity of oil palm root systems and how xylem vessels perform their function to transport water from roots to shoots so far. This information is needed to describe oil palm strategies to maintain water status, especially in oil palms that grow under various soil hydrological regimes. To investigate the root hydraulic performance, we measured mean xylem vessel diameter (D), vessel density (VD), vessel lumen area (Alumen), and potential hydraulic conductivity (Kp) for oil palm root samples in seasonally flooded riparian and well-drained sites at Harapan Jambi Forest. The result showed that D, Alumen, and Kp increased with increasing root diameter at both plantation types. On the contrary, VD significantly decreased with increasing root diameter. Potential hydraulic conductivity (Kp) in riparian sites was smaller than in welldrained sites and significantly different in root diameter >2-5 and >5-10 mm and related to both plantation types. The low potential hydraulic conductivity of root xylem vessels and the narrowing of xylem vessel lumen that occurs in oil palm roots in the seasonally flooded riparian sites were presumed as adaptation mechanisms to maintain water supply from the roots to the shoot in oil palm plants in these sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]