Iriartea deltoidea Ruiz & Pav.

  • Authority

    Henderson, A. 1990. Arecaceae. Part I. Introduction and the Iriarteinae. Fl. Neotrop. Monogr. 53: 1-100. (Published by NYBG Press)

  • Family

    Arecaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Iriartea deltoidea Ruiz & Pav.

  • Type

    Type. Peru. Pasco: Pozuzo [1784], Pavón s.n. (holotype, M; isotypes, F, G n.v., P) (F negs. 18532, 18532a, 25401, 25401a).

  • Synonyms

    Deckeria corneto H.Karst., Iriartea corneto (H.Karst.) H.Wendl., Iriartea ventricosa Mart., Deckeria ventricosa (Mart.) H.Karst., Iriartea phaeocarpa Mart., Deckeria phaeocarpa (Mart.) H.Karst., Iriartea gigantea H.Wendl. ex Burret, Iriartea weberbaueri Burret, Iriartea megalocarpa Burret

  • Description

    Species Description - Stem more or less ventricose, to 25 m tall, 10-30 cm in diam. at base, 12-70 cm in diam. at swelling, 11-23 cm in diam. at apex, gray, smooth, with nodes obscure and internodes to 30 cm long; stilt roots to 100, terete, nearly vertical, closely spaced and forming a dense cone, branched at or below ground level, to 2 m x 3.5 cm, black, with sharp spines. Leaves 4-7, stiffly spreading; sheath forming a crownshaft, 60-150 cm long, glaucous, green, outer surface with brown or white scales; petiole terete, 2-13 x 3 cm (to 40 cm long when including narrow, apical, petiolar part of sheath), green, densely brown-tomentose; rachis ridged adaxially, rounded abaxially, 2-4.3 m long, densely whitish-tomentose abaxially, densely whitish-brown-tomentose adaxially; pinnae 15-27 per side of rachis, alternate, stiff, coriaceous, deltate with praemorse distal margins, lustrous green glabrous above, green glabrous below except for dense brown villi at base and on veins or occasionally villous overall, occasionally below with lines ca. 3 mm wide of dense white or brown tomentum running parallel to veins, the middle pinnae split to the base into numerous segments, the proximal one of a pinna largest and pendulous and all the distal ones smaller and pointing up and away from the axis and giving the leaf a two-ranked appearance (juvenile plants with entire pinnae); proximal pinna entire, 6-28 cm long, 0.5-8 cm wide at mid-point, erect; middle pinnae split into as many as 18 segments, the proximal one 50-98(-122) cm long and 3-8(-47) cm wide at mid-point and the distal one 19-34 cm long and 1-2.5 cm wide at mid-point; apical pinna entire, flabellate, 35-38 cm long, 17 cm wide at mid-point. Inflorescence pendulous at anthesis, to 2 m long, buds developing below crownshaft and erect at first, soon becoming decurved and eventually horn-shaped; peduncle terete, curved, 20-44 cm long, half-encircling stem and then abruptly narrowing to 2-6 cm in diam., densely brown-velvety-tomentose, at anthesis with up to 16 bract scars; prophyll inserted at base of peduncle, triangular, bicarinate, 8 cm long, 7 cm wide at base, early caducous; peduncular bracts to 15, caducous as bud elongates, terete, with acute apex, splitting abaxially, the first ca. six similar to and only slightly longer than the prophyll, the remaining ca. nine longer, terete, horn-shaped eventually up to 120 cm long, sometimes an incomplete bract of variable size present; prophyll and peduncular bracts tomentose on the outside like the peduncle; rachis 14-46 cm long, of same diam. as peduncle at base and tapering into distal rachillae; rachillae 2337, all simple or more often the proximal few bifurcate, at base with 3-6 cm swollen, flattened, sterile section, ± equal in length, 80-140 cm long, 5-8 mm diam. at mid-point, subtended by a vestigial bract, glabrous; triads in as many as seven spirally arranged series, 2-6 mm apart, vestigially bracteate; flowers proximally in triads (rarely tetrads with two pistillate), distally staminate in pairs or solitary, or often all in an inflorescence staminate, yellowish at anthesis; staminate flowers up to 7 mm long; sepals depressed-ovate, imbricate, very briefly connate below, 2.5-3 x 2-4 mm, fleshy, gibbous, covered with long, stiff, caducous hairs; petals ovate-oblong, valvate, 7 x 3 mm; stamens (10-)12-15(-17); filaments triangular, 0.5 mm long; anthers linear, latrorse, sub-basifixed, 4-5 mm long; pis-tillode minute or absent; pollen with intectate, clavate exine; pistillate flowers 4 mm long; sepals fleshy, imbricate, 4-5 x 5 mm, ciliate; petals imbricate below, valvate above, fleshy, 4-5 x 5 mm; staminodes 10-13, adnate to base of petals, 1.5-2 mm long, apiculate; ovary 3-5 mm long, triangular in cross-section, 3-locular; stigmas sessile, triangular, 1 mm long, 1 mm diam. at base, erect at anthesis; fruit globose, 2-2.7 x 2.4-2.8 cm including persistent expanded perianth; stigmatic residue sub-apical to apical; epicarp glabrous, greenish-yellow at maturity and splitting irregularly from apex; mesocarp whitish, granular, fibrous; endocarp papery; seed globose, 1.5 cm diam., basally attached; raphe branches anastomosing; hilum rounded; embryo sub-apical to lateral; eophyll entire.

  • Discussion

    The outer part of the stems are used throughout its range for building purposes, e.g., floors, posts, poles; also for blowguns, bows, harpoons and arrow points; and also for firewood. The leaves are used for thatching and basketry. The heart and seeds are occasionally eaten. The inside layer of the leaf sheath is used to give women strength in labor (Shemluck & Ness 163, Ecuador). Hollowed-out stems are used as coffins by Emberá Indians in Colombia (R. Bernal, pers. comm.).

    Steven King (pers. comm.) reports that in northern Peru Angotere-Secoya and Quechua people use the stems of I. deltoidea as canoes. Large specimens are selected and carefully felled. The soft central ground tissue is removed from the center of the stem, and base and apex fashioned into bow and stem. The canoes are widely used for shortening trips, especially long overland trips where short-cuts can be made by river. Canoes last about two or three months. Such is the demand for these temporary canoes that many of the larger specimens of Iriartea have been felled in this area. Rodrigo Bernal (pers. comm.) reports that in Colombia the Emberá Indians of the Chocó tie the stems together and use them as rafts. Since these are so heavy they are only used for downstream travel.

    The holotype of Iriartea deltoidea consists of five sheets with a seedling, section of leaf, and piece of rachilla with pistillate flowers. The isotype is similar. This species is interpreted from the type, description, and a more recent collection from the type locality (Henderson 537).

    The type of Deckeria corneto consists of four sheets, with a leaf section and rachillae with staminate and pistillate flowers. This species is interpreted from the type, description, and other collections from at or near the type locality {Henderson et al. 119, Triana 1733-2, Dugand & Ja-ramillo 2921, Moore & Dietz 9865). Karsten described the species as having 16-20 stamens. The type has 15 stamens, and Henderson et al. 119 has 13-14. Karsten’s count is considered incorrect, and D. corneto is not maintained.

    The type of Iriartea ventricosa consists of a single sheet with a leaf section only. Dugand (1942) believed that the type locality could be in present-day Colombia. This species is interpreted from the type and the description. Martius distinguished his new species on its ventricose stem, pinna shape, and villose staminate calyx. The character of the stem swelling is of no significance. It is usual in Iriartea for lowland populations below ca. 300 m to have markedly swollen stems, and for upland populations to have more or less cylindrical stems. However, there are many exceptions in any population, and the character is physiological, and not of any taxonomic significance. The characters of the pinna shape and calyx trichomes are of little importance. All Iriartea specimens examined with young staminate flowers have villose sepals, but these trichomes soon fall from the sepals.

    The type of Iriartea phaeocarpa consists of a seedling only, which is illustrated in Martius (1847). This species is interpreted from the type, the description, from Martius (1847), and more recent collections from near the type locality (Nee & Solomon 30325). Martius recognized that this species was similar to I. ventricosa, but distinguished it by its few peduncular bracts, pinnae size, and fruit size. The number of peduncular bracts, three, is obviously based on a misinterpretation, probably most had fallen when the illustration was made. The illustration is, in any case, incomplete (Burret, 1930). Pinnae shape and fruit size are not considered significant.

    The type of Iriartea gigantea consists of leaf sections and rachillae with staminate and pistillate flowers. This species is interpreted from the type, the description, and from recent collections from at or near the type locality (Moore 6574, Moore & Parthasarathy 9413, Tomlinson 65B, Henderson 42). Burret distinguished his new species by its thicker rachillae with seven series of triads, and by its longer fruit. These differences are slight and are not considered significant.

    The type of Iriartea weberbaueri consists of approximately 30 fruits. This species is interpreted from the type and the description. Burret distinguished the species by its larger fruits and cylindrical stem. The type fruits are 2-2.5 x 2.2-2.5 cm, and easily fall within the range observed in other specimens. As discussed above, the character of the stem swelling is of no taxonomic significance.

    The type of Iriartea megalocarpa is no longer extant at B, and no isotypes are known. A recent collection from the type locality, the neotype, is typical Iriartea deltoidea.

  • Common Names

    Makenge, maquengue, arrá, Barrigona, barrigona negra, ben, bombona, bonbona, buche, cachuda, Chonta, lé-tö, mi-sí-bo-to, pachuda barriguda, Pambil, palma pachiúba-barriguda, pona lisa, yunyuna, zana cana, Cadotodek, crepísh, Bombocho, bombo, Chonta, chonta kilo, huagrashanga, obá, ora, Pambil, patihua, patiwa, taraputu, tepa, Camona, hua-crapona, pona, sin tuntuám, tuntuám, tao, tarapato, tarapoto, Pachiúba barriguda, paxiúba barrigouda, copa, pachuba tuamo

  • Distribution

    Nicaragua, south to Bolivia, and east to western Amazon basin of Brazil and Venezuela, in lowland and montane rainforest between sea level and 1300 m (Fig. 23).

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