Oenocarpus bacaba Mart.

  • Authority

    Mori, S. A., et al. 1997. Guide to the vascular plants of central French Guiana: Part 1. Pteridophytes, gymnosperms, and monocotyledons. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 76: 1-422.

  • Family

    Arecaceae

  • Scientific Name

    Oenocarpus bacaba Mart.

  • Description

    Species Description - Tall, single-stemmed, canopy plants, with smooth, columnar trunk, the trunk to 25 m X 15-25 cm, with reddish, aerial roots at base, the internodes 10-50 cm long. Leaves 7-17, erect, obliquely or nearly horizontally oriented; sheath 0.5-1.1 m long, red to brown adaxially, green abaxially, slightly fibrous at margins, with ligule ±30 cm long; petiole 0.6-2 m long, canaliculate above, rounded below, green, at first grayish-lepidote, becoming glabrous; rachis green, 3-6 m long, bearing 75-117 pinnae oriented in several planes and borne in groups of 2-6 on each side, the most distal pinnae ± regularly spaced; pinnae 12-160 X 1-8 cm, linearlanceolate, somewhat drooping, the widest ones in middle of blade, the blade green on both surfaces. Inflorescences 1-3 per plant; peduncle obliquely erect, green, terete, 15-40 cm long; prophyll 0.3-1.5 m, green to reddish brown, flattened and crenulate at margins; peduncular bract 0.8-2 m long, fusiform, acuminate; rachis 50-80 cm long, bearing many (usually >200), pendulous rachillae, these 0.8-1.5 m long, cream-colored at anthesis, red when bearing fruit, bearing pistillate flowers on lower half. Fruits globose, smooth, glabrous, 12-20 mm diam., purplish-black and glaucous at maturity. Seeds with homogeneous endosperm. Fl (Nov-Feb), fr (Feb-May); very abundant on well-drained slopes and hilltops; the fruits are used to make a drink. Comou.

  • Distribution

    Fl (Nov-Feb), fr (Feb-May); very abundant on well-drained slopes and hilltops; the fruits are used to make a drink. Comou.

    French Guiana South America|