Euterpe broadwayi

Euterpe broadwayi is a native palm tree in South America. It was named after the British botanist Walter Elias Broadway ( 1863-1935 ). The hearts of palm are eaten.

Features

Euterpe broadwayi is a multi-stemmed palm with usually two or three tribes, rare it is single-stemmed. The stems are gray, upright to slightly leaning, 8 to 20 m high with a diameter of 20 to 25 cm. At the base, they have a cone of adventitious roots, which can be as long as 2 m.

The crown consists of 10 to 16 leaves. The leaf sheath is 1.3 to 1.8 m long and green to reddish brown. The petiole is 0.7 to 1.2 m long and dense to slightly covered with flat black, reddish-brown or whitish brown scales. The rachis is covered 2.9 to 3.6 m long and with similar scales. On each side of the rachis are 80 to 92 leaflets that are hanging up horizontally at the top but hanging. They are leathery, have a distinct midrib and two lateral veins. The basal leaves is 70 to 80 cm long, the middle 80 to 120 cm, which at the top 30 to 50 cm.

The inflorescences arise between the leaves and are heyday from horizontal. The peduncle is 15 to 20 inches long and about 3 cm thick. The cover sheet is approximately 1.3 m long, the bracts on the inflorescence stalk around 1.2 m. The inflorescence axis is approximately 45 cm long, you are at about 95 Page axes that are 70 to 95 cm long. The latter are dense with 1 to 2 mm long, branched, occupied whitish- brown hair. The flowers are approximately two-thirds of the axis length in triads, in the distal region are male flowers in pairs or individually.

The male flowers are long and 5 mm. The sepals are broadly oval, 3 mm long, membranous. The petals are oval, 3.5 to 4 mm long and fleshy. The stamens are on a short receptaculum. The stamens are 1.5 mm long and flattened, the anthers 2.5 mm long. The stamp rudiment is 1.5 to 3 mm long and at the head of deep -lobed. The female flowers are long and 4 mm. Sepals and petals are broadly oval and up to 4 mm long.

The fruits are globose to slightly compressed with a diameter of 1 to 1.4 cm. The scars radical subapical to the side. The exocarp is purple -black and finely tuberculate. The seeds are spherical, the endosperm homogeneous and the primary leaf is pinnate.

Dissemination and locations

Euterpe broadwayi occurs in the Lesser Antilles (Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent ) in Trinidad and Tobago. It grows on exposed, wind -swept sites to wooded ridge or steep river valleys in altitudes between 600 and 1000 m.

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 )