Ceroxylon echinulatum
Ceroxylon (seh-ROKS-ih-lon) echinulatum (ehk-heen-oo-LAH-tuhm) | |||||||
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Mindo, Ecuador. Photo by Jake Kloepfer | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Ceroxylon echinulatum is found in the Western and eastern Andes of Ecuador, and Eastern Andes in Peru, in humid premontane and lower montane forest, at 1600-2200 m, in pastures, coffee plantations, crop plots, and remnant forests. It forms populations of hundreds of individuals and apparently it was very abundant in the past. On the eastern Andes of Ecuador there are still extensive populations, especially of old individuals that are left standing in the middle of pastures, but regeneration is usually very abundant near forest patches left along streams. (Maria Jose Sanin and Gloria Galeano. 2011)/Palmweb.Description
Canopy palm. Stem solitary, 10-25 m tall, 20-30 cm in diameter, usually grey, more rarely white with black leaf scars. Leaves to 4.5 m long; pinnae 75-90 on each side, regularly inserted in one plane, pendulous, the central ones 85-105 cm long and 3-5 cm wide, below with a thick, white to light brown, waxy tomentum. Inflorescences erect to arching, curved in fruit, to 250 cm long, branched 3 times. Fruit globose, 1-2 cm in diameter, finely warty, green, turning orange-red at maturity. (Borchsenius, F. 1998)/Palmweb.
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Stem 5-20 (-25) m tall, 15-30 cm in diam., white at base and turning green towards apex, covered with thin layer of wax. Leaves 7-15 (-23), in a hemispheric crown; sheath 50-150 cm long, margins fibrous, abaxial surface covered with cream, floccose, lepidote indumentum, exhibiting a gradual transition to petiole; petiole 62-75 (-85) cm long, 6.0-8.5 wide at apex, adaxial surface concave, waxy, glabrescent, margins acute, abaxial surface densely covered with persistent, cream-colored, 1-2 mm scales, with conspicuous, waxy, yellowish, 0.2-0.4 mm bases, and arranged in adjacent or interlocked rows, 0.3 mm wide; rachis 272-335 cm long, adaxially flattened in about ½ of its length, ending in a well-defined, 1-2 mm hastula-like projection, glabrescent to densely covered with light-yellow indumentum, abaxial surface covered (specially towards apex), with either persistent, yellowish, thick, waxy, 0.3-0.6 mm bases, or the whole scales appearing as white, linear threads and wooly fibres; pinnae 55-118 on each side, regularly arranged in one plane, slightly or completely pendulous, adaxial midrib glabrescent with visible scale base scars, abaxial midrib covered with persistent, linear, translucent scales, surface densely covered with persistent, padded, cream scales, shortly revealing leaf surface every 5-8 rows; the most basal filiform pinnae 20.5 cm × 0.6 cm, basal pinnae (10th from base) 39-78 × 0.6-3.0 cm, middle pinnae 89-115 × 3-4.5 cm, 1.5-4.0 cm apart, apical pinnae 13-49 (-72) × 0.2-1.0 cm, the 5 apical pinnae sometimes joined at the tip. Staminate inflorescences 3 at one time; peduncle with scale base scars or scarce fibres of degraded scales; prophyll plus 4-6 peduncular bracts covered with very thin, translucent, fragile, scarce scales; rachis 84-123 cm long, with 65-100 branches, each subtended by a membranaceous acuminate bract, rachis and branches glabrescent, longest branches. Pistillate inflorescences 2-8 at one time; peduncle (60-) 114-166 cm long, 3.0-3.5 cm wide at apex; prophyll 41-58 cm long, 12-14 cm wide at base; peduncular bracts 5, inserted at basal half of peduncle, 75-223 cm long, with a 6th smaller, distal one, 25-30 cm long, inserted near apex of peduncle, largest bracts 200-223 cm long; rachis 110-147 cm long, with (36-)63-85 branches, each subtended by a 0.5-2.8 cm long, membranaceous bract, longest branches 55-105 cm long; prophyll, peduncle, bracts and base of rachis covered with persistent, cream-colored scales, rachillae glabrous. Staminate flowers: sepals 3, triangular, acuminate, 1-2 mm long, connate in 0.3-0.5 mm (1/3-½ of total length), not reaching edge of corrolla tube; petals 3, elliptical to triangular, very long-acuminate, 5.5-8.0 mm long, including an acumen of 1.5-2.5 mm long, connate in 1.3-2.0 mm; stamens (9-) 10-11 (-12), 2-6 antisepalous stamens, and 6-9 (-10) antipetalous stamens, filaments 1.0-1.5 mm long, anthers 2-3 mm long, anther connective not projected. Pistillate flowers: sepals 3, broadly triangular-acuminate, 1.0-1.5 mm long, connate in 0.6-1.0 mm (½-2/3 of total length), not reaching edge of corolla tube; petals 3, elliptical-acuminate, 5.0-6.5 mm long, including an acumen of 2-3 mm long, connate up to 1.2-2.0 mm; staminodes 9-11, 1 antisepalous, 2-3 antipetalous, filaments 1 mm long, abortive anthers 0.9-1.2 mm long, pistil green, trifid, 2-3 mm in diam. Fruits globose, turning red when ripe, 1.3-2.2 cm in diam., exocarp densely covered with prominent, irregular and acute bulges; fruiting perianth with very broadly triangular sepals of 1.0-1.5 mm long, connate in 0.4-0.5, lobes not reaching or barely reaching edge of corolla tube, petals elliptical-acuminate, widened at base, connate in 0.7-1.0 mm. (Maria Jose Sanin and Gloria Galeano. 2011)/Palmweb. Editing by edric. This species now includes the former C. alpinum subsp. ecuadorense Galeano. The white indumentum of the peduncular bracts supporting this arrangement. Molecular studies (Trénel et al. 2007b) presented the well-supported monophyly of these two entities according to AFLP, and a 6-gene data set (including PRK, matK, trnD-trnT, ndhF, and ITS), and also by finding active gene flow between these two populations. The evidence suggests that cline divergence and Quaternary dispersal have maintained the biological continuum between the populations of the morphotype described as C. alpinum subsp. ecuadorenseand C. echinulatum in Ecuador (Trénel et al. 2008). Ceroxylon echinulatum is diagnosed by its very long petiole, leaves arched with pinnae regularly arranged, slightly to completely pendulous; staminate flowers with 9-12 stamens and very long-acuminate petals, and fruits with exocarp densely covered with prominent, irregular and acute bulges. (Maria Jose Sanin and Gloria Galeano. 2011)/Palmweb. |
Culture
Cold Hardiness Zone: 10a
Comments and Curiosities
Conservation: Ceroxylon echinulatum was considered, according to the IUCN, Vulnerable in Ecuador, mainly due to deforestation and the cutting of young leaves for Palm Sunday (Borchsenius & Skov 1999, Valencia et al. 2000). Concerning the Western populations of this species, Svenning & Balslev (1998) have mentioned that although it is common in some areas, the survival of this species is threatened by the deforestation of its natural habitat. Pintaud & Anthelme (2008) consider that the destructive use of the stems of this species for house and fence construction, along with habitat loss due to forest clearing, is severely diminishing natural populations. These authors report the use of this species in agroforestry systems and its cultivation for wood extraction as a sustainable alternative that is already being implemented in the Upper Urumba Valley of northern Peru. (Maria Jose Sanin and Gloria Galeano. 2011)/Palmweb.
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Uses: The stems are used for building houses and fences. In the western and eastern Andes in Ecuador, the young leaves are used in religious processions on Palm Sunday, and used for weaving ceremonial baskets during the easter time, and also sold for this purpose. The basal portion of the peduncle of young inflorescences is edible, and is cooked and added to salads, it has edible seeds, which are roasted or cooked before eating. The fruits are eaten by pigs, and for this reason palms are often left standing on pastures. The wax covering the stems was formerly used in Ecuador to make candles. reported the use of this species in northern Peru as a source of wood for house construction and of fruits and infructescences for animal nutrition. (Maria Jose Sanin and Gloria Galeano. 2011)/Palmweb. |
External Links
References
Phonetic spelling of Latin names by edric.
Special thanks to Geoff Stein, (Palmbob) for his hundreds of photos.
Special thanks to Palmweb.org, Dr. John Dransfield, Dr. Bill Baker & team, for their volumes of information and photos.
Glossary of Palm Terms; Based on the glossary in Dransfield, J., N.W. Uhl, C.B. Asmussen-Lange, W.J. Baker, M.M. Harley & C.E. Lewis. 2008. Genera Palmarum - Evolution and Classification of the Palms. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. All images copyright of the artists and photographers (see images for credits).
Borchsenius, F. 1998. Manual to the palms of Ecuador. AAU Reports 37. Department of Systematic Botany, University of Aarhus, Denmark in collaboration with Pontificia Universidad Catalica del Ecuador.
Maria Jose Sanin & Gloria Geleano in Phytotaxa 34 (2011). A revision of the Andean wax palms, Ceroxylon (Arecaceae).
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.