Geonoma schottiana

Geonoma (geo-NO-mah) schottiana (scott-ee-AHN-ah)
Minas Gerais, Brazil. Photo by Dr. Kelen Soares
Scientific Classification
Genus: Geonoma (geo-NO-mah) Species: schottiana (scott-ee-AHN-ah)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Clustering Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
None.

Habitat and Distribution

Brazil, Southeast.

Machado - Minas Gerais, Brazil. Photo-FARM MURICY

From 16°35-29°46'S and 39°39-51°08'W in the Atlantic Coastal Forest and inland areas of southeastern Brazil (Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo) at 747(3-1600) m elevation in lowland to montane tropical rainforest or gallery forest. (Henderson, A.J. 2011)/Palmweb.

Description

Small palm species, common in dense forest underbrush, forming dense clumps. Reaches to about 3 m high, with very old plants reaching more than this size. The flowers are small and white, pollinated by insects such as flies, bees and beetles. The fruits are purple when ripe and the rachis is bright red and serves to attract the birds, which disperse.

Palm 2.9 (1.5-6.0) m tall; stem 1.7 (0.3-3.5) m tall, in diameter, no data, solitary, cane-like (caespitose); internodes no data, yellowish and smooth. Leaves 15 (7-24) per stem, regularly pinnate, the pinnae with 1 main vein and 2 lateral veins on either side of main vein, not plicate, bases of blades running diagonally into the rachis; sheaths 26.9 (23.5?33.0) cm long; petioles 57.8 (30.0-87.0) cm long, drying green or yellowish; rachis 70.4 (44.0-118.0) cm long, 5.1 (2.6-8.9) mm in diameter; veins raised and rectangular in cross-section adaxially; pinnae 26 (10?38) per side of rachis; basal pinna 36.8 (17.5-59.0) cm long, 0.5 (0.2-2.1) cm wide, forming an angle of 49 (25-90)° with the rachis; apical pinna 22.4 (12.5-36.5) cm long, 3.0 (0.6-10.2) cm wide, forming an angle of 21 (7-34)° with the rachis. Inflorescences unbranched or branched 1?3 orders; prophylls and peduncular bracts not ribbed with elongate, unbranched fibers, flattened, deciduous or persistent; prophylls 26.4 (16.0-36.5) cm long, not short and asymmetrically apiculate, the surfaces not ridged, without unequally wide ridges; peduncular bracts 20.2 (8.6-31.0) cm long, well-developed, inserted 18.8 (5.0-46.0) cm above the prophyll; peduncles 37.7 (18.0-73.5) cm long, 5.1 (1.6-10.6) mm in diameter; rachillae 16 (1-69), 20.6 (7.5-37.0) cm long, 1.9 (0.7-3.5) mm in diameter, the surfaces without spiky, fibrous projections or ridges, drying brown or yellow-brown, without short, transverse ridges, not filiform and not narrowed between the flower pits; flower pits tricussately arranged, the groups not closely spaced nor consistently arranged throughout the rachillae, glabrous internally; proximal lips without a central notch before anthesis, not recurved after anthesis, not hood-shaped; proximal and distal lips drying darker brown than the rachillae, not joined to form a raised cupule, the proximal lip margins overlapping the distal lip margins; distal lips well-developed; staminate and pistillate petals not emergent, not valvate throughout; staminate flowers deciduous after anthesis; stamens 6; thecae diverging at anthesis, inserted almost directly onto the filament apices, the connectives bifid but scarcely developed; anthers short and curled over at anthesis; non-fertilized pistillate flowers deciduous after anthesis; staminodial tubes crenulate or shallowly lobed at the apex, those of non-fertilized pistillate flowers not projecting and persistent after anthesis; fruits 9.3 (7.4-13.4) mm long, 7.5 (5.9-10.6) mm in diameter, the bases with a prominent, asymmetric stipe, the apices conical with rounded apices, the surfaces not splitting at maturity, without fibers emerging, not bumpy, not apiculate; locular epidermis without operculum, smooth, without pores. (Henderson, A.J. 2011)/Palmweb.

Culture

Comments and Curiosities

Crafts: Its leaves have been widely used in the making of handicrafts such as baskets and baskets, or used in the coverage of rustic buildings. Formerly the leaves were collected, dried and dyed, and used in various decorative items.

Honey: Although not much, bees visit them.

Ornamental: It is a small palm tree, very elegant, not branches, ideal for gardens.