Butia
Butia capitata in a garden in Madrid
The jelly palm ( Butia ) are a genus of flowering plants in the palm family ( Arecaceae ). Natural deposits are found in South America, especially in Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina.
Description
The Butia species are strong, single -stemmed palm trees. You have arched droopy leaflets.
The jelly palm is one of the few palm species whose representatives are monoecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( monoecious ). On a palm tree that is both male and female inflorescences occur. The fruit contains one to three seeds.
Use
In their countries of origin the Ordinary jelly palm ( Butia capitata ) is grown as a crop, since the plants produce plum-sized fruits that are suitable for direct human consumption and for the production of jelly and jams. The taste has similarities to peaches and pineapple. The most nutritious seeds are ideal for the production of animal feed, but can also be eaten as a nut. A mature plant bears in their natural habitat up to 100 kilograms of fruit. However, since only a very small portion of the resulting seed is able to germinate, carrying a large amount of fruit for reproduction is required. Outside Latin America, but the fruits of the jelly palm trees are largely unknown and rarely available. In Latin America, the fruits are not readily available, since most of the production is used for further processing.
The other species play no role as a crop and are grown only as ornamental plants. The frost resistance varies depending on the plant between -8 ° C and -12 ° C. Some jelly palm species are distributed in Central European nurseries and can be planted 8 or higher ( eg, in the Rhine Valley on the North Sea coast) in regions of the hardiness zone. For regeneration temperatures are above 20 ° C is necessary, which ausgepflanzte jelly palms in Central Europe to grow very slowly.
System
The genus was erected in 1916 by the Italian botanist Odoardo Beccari. In 1887 he had the name Butia first used as a name for a subgenus of the genus Cocos. In the genus of jelly palm ( Butia ) can be distinguished about 20 species:
- Butia archeri
- Butia campicola
- Butia capitata
- Butia catarinensis
- Butia eriospatha
- Butia exospadix
- Butia lallemantii
- Butia lepidotispatha
- Butia leptospatha
- Butia marmorii
- Butia matogrossensis
- Butia microspadix
- Butia odorata
- Butia paraguayensis
- Butia pubispatha
- Butia purpurascens
- Butia stolonifera
- Butia witeckii
- Butia yatay