Astrocaryum murumuru

Astrocaryum (ahs-tro-kahr-EE-uhm) murumuru (moor-oo-MOOR-oo)
Scientific Classification
Genus: Astrocaryum (ahs-tro-kahr-EE-uhm) Species: murumuru (moor-oo-MOOR-oo)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Clustering Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Muru-Muru or Murumuru.

Habitat and Distribution

Astrocaryum murumuru is found in Brazil North, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Photo by Cindy Adair, Las Marias, PR

In Brazil, it is widespread in the Amazon Basin where it is often one of the dominant trees.

Description

"Tall, usually solitary palm (sometimes suckering and sometimes trunkless) from South America - very spiny palm! Very long leaves up to 20' with white undersides- striking. But everything is spiny on this palm-even the seeds and flowers." (Geoff Stein).

A large, highly variable species that can be short and stemless thru to a tall, robust, clustering palm. It has an open conical shaped crown with large, flat leaves, and closely spaced leaflets, with dark green uppers, and silvery undersides. The large fruits are edible, and the seed kernel is a significant source of edible oil in Brazil, where it is gathered commercially. The kernel also produces a very rich extract which is used by the beauty industry for shampoos, conditioners, and moisturizing skin care products, The leaf fibers used locally for hammocks.

Caespitose palms; infructescence often pendulous; fruit up to 9 cm long, 4,5 cm broad; mesocarp very fleshy when ripe, 6—10 mm thick; corolla of the pistillate flower vase-shaped, or tubular often shallowly contracted at the middle or at the distal third (like a 8), large enough to encompass the proximal part of the stigmas. (scielo.org.pe) Editing by edric.

Culture

Requirements: consistently moist, but fast draining soil. Cold Hardiness Zone: 10b

Comments and Curiosities

The calyx of the pistillate flower is glabrous, cup-shaped, shallowly tridentate, shorter than corolla, rarely hardly subequal, never covering it. Subsection Murumuru includes three species: Astrocaryum chonta, found from Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia to the lower Ucayali river valley in Peru; Astrocaryum ulei, found from north of Bolivia to the southern bank of Rio Solimões in Brazil (Acre, Amazonas, Rondônia), and Astrocaryum murumuru, found in the Guianas and in the northeastern and central regions of the Amazon basin in Brazil (Amapa, Amazonas, Pará, Roraima, Rondônia, it reaches Acre westwards in the southern region). (scielo.org.pe)

Uses: The large fruits are edible. The leaf fibers used locally for hammocks. Muru Muru butter is pressed from the reddish orange fruits. Used in facial treatments. The seed kernel is a significant source of edible oil in Brazil, where it is gathered commercially. The kernel also produces a very rich extract which is used by the beauty industry for shampoos, conditioners, and moisturizing skin care products; "it's natural gloss brings a desirable shine to dry, damaged hair ".