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Dictyocaryum lamarckianum
(Mart.) H.Wendl.
Original
reference:
Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) 21: 131 (1863)
Basionym:
Iriartea lamarckiana Mart.
Morphology:
Canopy palm. Stem solitary, erect, to 25 m tall and 40 cm in diameter, often swollen in the central part. Base supported by a 1-2 m tall, dense cone of black stilroots, these with numerous short, whitish root spines. Leaves 3-6, to 5 m long, strongly bushy; pinnae numerous, longitudinally split, jagged at the apex, silverish green below. Inflorescence to 2 m long, erect, with numerous long, pendulous branches, creamish yellow in flower. Fruit greenish yellow, globose, ca. 3 cm in diameter.
Distribution:
Patchily distributed from Panama to Bolivia along the Andes, in premontane moist to wet forest, often very abundant in a certain (variable) altitudinal range. In Ecuador it is found on both sides of the Andes.
Notes:
Closely related to Iriartea which it resembles in flower structure and protandrous flowering pattern.
Common
names:
Bonbon
-
Spanish
(Borchsenius et al. 1998).
Guagrachango
-
Spanish
(Borchsenius et al. 1998).
Palma
-
Spanish
(H. Balslev #4293 and additional references).
Palma real
-
Spanish
(H. Balslev #60671).
Uses:
Immature, tender inflorescenses are edible
(V.v.d. Eynden #583).
Seeds used for counting practices by the young
(H. Balslev #4293).
Stem used for fence poles, said to last 4 years
(H. Balslev #4293).
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Crown and inflorescence of Dictyocaryum lamarckianum along the road from Baeza to Lago Agrio on the E slopes of the Andes in Ecuador
Photo:
H. B. Pedersen
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