Bactris gasipaes

Peach palm ( Bactris gasipaes )

The peach palm ( Bactris gasipaes, Portuguese: Pupunheira; Spanish: chonta, Pijuayo; engl: Peach Palm. ), Is a common palm that is native to tropical America. The 20 meters high stem and the leaves are partly occupied with dense spines.

She is one of the plant species that were cultivated by the South American Indians. The fruit is a drupe with an edible pulp surrounding the single seed, four to six inches in length and three to five inches in diameter. The fruit can be red, orange or yellow. That depends on the maturity and variety of palm.

A great advantage of the plant is its high growth. So you can grow smaller plants in the shade of her crown, which would otherwise burn in the blazing sun. The peach palm grows very quickly. Even 18 to 24 months after putting the Sapling, you can harvest the first fruits. Birds also like to eat the beautiful fruit. These are, particularly the parrots. Attached is the palm tree in Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia, Panama and Colombia.

Use

The fruit must be cooked very long. They are light -edged and very starchy. The trunk of this palm is suitable for the production of palm hearts, because it forms several shoots and regenerates quickly. The shoots of the peach palm tree grow directly on the trunk. They thus provide a whole new set of plants. The reddish palm fruit can be processed into palm oil or other foods and is rich in proteins. Its yield of edible oil exceeds even the soybean or the African palm. Also can be fruit juices and alcoholic beverages produced from it. In former times, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon have used the fruit as a drink. The Shuar on the eastern slopes of the Andes of fruit with saliva is the drink " chicha de chonta " produced by fermentation. Of the members of the Matis the spines of the palm, both for tattooing, as well as the piercing of body decoration and are used under the name detashkete inserted into the nostrils to imitate the appearance of whiskers.