Euterpe (palm)

Euterpe oleracea

Euterpe is occurring in tropical America Palm genus with seven species. The genus Euterpe is after, one of the nine muses of Greek mythology, named.

Features

The representatives are single -stemmed or multi-stemmed palm trees. The strains are usually tall and upright or leaning. The leaves are pinnate, leaf sheaths are closed and form a compact crown shaft. The ligule is short and falls early on. The petiole is short or absent, rarely long. At the top of the handle is grooved, rounded down. The rachis is grooved at the top, flattened at the bottom. The leaflets are arranged numerous, linear and regular. They are all in one plane, usually they hang something. There are one or two lateral veins on each side of the midrib of the leaf.

The inflorescence is simple and branched protandrisch. He appears between the leaves and the flowering period is from horizontal. The peduncle is compressed shorter than the inflorescence axis and dorsiventrally. The cover page of the inflorescence is papyrus -like, double- keeled and falls off. The bract on peduncle is equal or almost equal to the previous sheet, papyrus -like and deciduous. The side branches of the inflorescence are usually densely hairy, the hairs are permanent. The flowers are in triads, male flowers may also stand in pairs or individually, though.

The male flowers are sessile, the petals are not fused. There are six stamens. The anthers are arrow-shaped and open latrors itself. The female flowers have wide overlapping sepals and petals. Staminodes absent or are present only at Euterpe luminosa. The ovary is unicompartmental, the only one ovule is positioned laterally.

The fruits are often spherical or ellipsoidal, the grain residue is just below the tip to the side. In mesocarp are radially standing sclereids. The endocarp is fibrous. In the seed, the embryo is located basally. The scar ( hilum ) is elliptical. The endosperm is homogeneous, rarely furrowed. The primary leaf is in two parts ( bifid ) or pinnate.

Dissemination

The genus occurs in Central America and tropical South America. In the Caribbean it occurs on Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles. The representatives grow in the lowland rain forest and go into the mountain rain forests up to 2000 m above sea level.

System

The genus Euterpe is placed in the subfamily Arecoideae, Tribe Euterpeae within the family Arecaceae. A comprehensive cladistic analysis revealed a sister group, the group from the two genera Prestoea and Neonicholsonia, but was missing in this analysis by the representatives of the tribe the genus Oenocarpus.

Henderson and Galeano accepted in 1996 in her monograph seven species. These were taken over by Rafael Govaerts and John Dransfield in their World Checklist of Palms 2005:

• Euterpe broadwayi
• Euterpe Catinga
• Euterpe edulis
• Euterpe longibracteata
• Euterpe luminosa
• Euterpe oleracea
• Euterpe precatoria

Use

The species, especially Euterpe oleracea, are used for the extraction of palm hearts, the so-called Palmitos. In Brazil alone, more than 110,000 tons were produced in 1980. From the fruits of Euterpe oleracea, a " assai " is produced called drink in Brazil, to 1980 60.000 tons of fruit were used.

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 )