Euterpe edulis

Euterpe edulis

Euterpe edulis, also Jussarapalme or Juçarapalme, is a native palm species in South America, which was decimated by the extraction of palm hearts.

Features

It makes individual tribes, rarely it is multi-stemmed and then with a few strains. The stems are erect, 5 to 12 m high with a diameter of 10 to 15 cm. The root surface is usually gray lichens, at the base is a reddish- brown cones of adventitious roots. These have a diameter of 1 to 2 cm.

The crown consists of 8 to 15 pinnate leaves. The leaf sheath is 0.8 to 1.4 m long, olive green to dark green, sometimes with a reddish or orange tone. The surface is occupied bald or with reddish brown scales. The petiole is 13-54 cm long. The rachis is 1.5 to 3 m long. On either side sit 38-62 (rarely 70) leaflets. You are projecting or hanging, almost opposite, regularly arranged and provided with a distinct midrib. The lowermost pinna is 29 to 50 cm long, the middle 49-80 cm and the leaflets at the top 15 to 35 cm.

The inflorescences appear between the leaves and flowering time are nearly horizontal. The peduncle is 4 to 8.5 cm long, the cover sheet to one meter. The bract on peduncle 61 to 65 ( rarely to 104) cm long, more bract rudiments of peduncle and axis are up to 4 cm long. The inflorescence axis is 45-69 cm long, the outgoing of her 49-110 (rarely 120) side branches 26 to 58 ( rarely to 75) cm long. The flowers are in triads, in pairs or individually at the end of the side branches and are then male.

The male flowers are 5-6 mm long and purple. The stamens are on a short receptaculum. The stamens are 1.5 to 2.5 mm long, the anthers 2.5 to 3 mm. The stamp rudiment is approximately 1 mm long and three-piece at the top. The female flowers are 3 to 4.5 mm long.

The fruits are spherical with a diameter of 1 to 1.4 cm. The scars radicals subapical. The exocarp is black to maturity. The seeds are spherical, homogeneous endosperm. The primary leaf is palmately divided.

Dissemination and locations

Euterpe edulis is on the Atlantic coast of Brazil and neighboring regions before: Alagoas, Bahia, Distrito Federal, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Minas Gerais, Paraíba, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo and Sergipe. The area still includes the northeast of Argentina ( Misiones ) and the south-east of Paraguay ( Departamento Alto Paraná ). The species grows in rainforests on rather steep slopes, rarely flooded sites. It comes up at altitudes of between 1000 m.

On slopes and ridges can form dense populations, particularly quartzite and sandy soil. They also colonized disturbed forest sites.

Use

Euterpe edulis was for many years the largest supplier of palm hearts. 1965 Paraguay exported 3205 tonnes of palm hearts, which was the destruction of tens of millions of palm trees. Between 1968 and 1970, Brazil exported an average of 2650 tons of palm hearts. The palm hearts were obtained from all wild stocks. The holdings of Euterpe edulis therefore greatly decreased, the use shifted to Euterpe oleracea.

Rather is subordinate to the use of the strains as timber, the leaves for thatching and the fruit for juicing.

System

The type Euterpe edulis was first described in 1824 by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius. The style is like the other members of the genus quite variable with many local forms. The described by Boudet Fernandes 1989 Type Euterpe espiritosantensis was by the agents of the monograph for the Flora Neotropica, Henderson and Galeano (1996 ) not recognized because the features are within the variability of Euterpe edulis.

Documents

• Andrew Henderson, Gloria Galeano: Euterpe, Prestoea, and Neonicholsonia ( Palmae: Euterpeinae ). Flora Neotropica, Volume 72, New York Botanical Garden Press, New York 1996, pp. 1-90. ( JSTOR )

• Palmaceus
• Arecaceae