Chamaedorea deckeriana

Chamaedorea (kahm-eh-doh-REH-ah) deckeriana (deh-ker'-ee-ahn-ah)
Scientific Classification
Genus: Chamaedorea (kahm-eh-doh-REH-ah) Species: deckeriana (deh-ker'-ee-ahn-ah)
Synonyms
Dasystachys deckeriana
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Solitary Leaf type: Bifid
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
None.

Habitat and Distribution

Chamaedorea deckeriana is found in COSTA RICA, and in a few parts of PANAMA in the wet

forest on the Atlantic slope up to 900 m elevation.

Description

Chamaedorea deckeriana is a particularly attractive plant, and with it's scarcity would be much sought after by collectors. The packed and heavily laden bright red-orange fruits add to its overall spectacular appearance. It is solitary with large coarse bifid leaves having an almost corrugated look, from .3- 2 m tall, with a slender stem of 2-3 cm in diameter. Editing by edric.

Uncommon in cultivation and easily confused with C. allenii and C. zamorae. It exists in a few collections in California, Florida, Hawaii, and Australia. It is also cultivated in a few gardens in Costa Rica.

Culture

Like most understory "Chams", it prefers a sheltered, and moist but well drained position. Will grow in tropical through to warm, temperate regions.

Comments and Curiosities

Hodel reports the flowers have a distinct pungent fragrance the permeates the greenhouse in where he is growing this species which "conjures up images of a deep, dark, primeval rain forest, just the sort of habitat in which one finds C. deckeriana."

Chamaedorea is a dioecious genus - meaning the male and female flowers occur on separate plants. The Greek is translated to mean “gift on the ground” - possibly referring to the small stature and pleasant surprise of finding such a gem at your feet.

The epithet honors 19th-century German botanist G. H. Decker, from whose garden the type originated.