Geonoma deversa

Geonoma (geo-NO-mah) deversa (deh-VEHR-sah)
Below 1000 m. Bocas Del Toro, Isla Colon & mainland Panama. Photo-Smithsonian.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Geonoma (geo-NO-mah) Species: deversa (deh-VEHR-sah)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Solitary & clustering. Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
None.

Habitat and Distribution

Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica,

Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica. Photo by By Dr. Reinaldo Aguilar.

Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Description

Small palm 2.4 (0.5-5.0) m tall; stems 2.4 (0.3-7.0) m tall, 1.0 (0.5-1.8) cm in diameter, solitary or clustered, canelike or not cane-like; internodes 1.9 (0.5-7.5) cm long, yellowish and smooth. Leaves 11 (6-18) per stem, undivided or irregularly pinnate, sometimes regularly pinnate and the pinnae with 1 main vein only, not plicate, bases of blades running diagonally into the rachis; sheaths 12.5 (5.0-27.5) cm long; petioles 20.6 (4.2?82.0) cm long, drying green or yellowish; rachis 42.0 (17.2-92.5) cm long, 3.2 (1.4-7.0) mm in diameter; veins not raised or slightly raised and triangular in cross-section adaxially; pinnae 5 (1-28) per side of rachis; basal pinna 28.5 (10.5-60.5) cm long, 6.4 (0.5-27.0) cm wide, forming an angle of 42 (20-93)° with the rachis; apical pinna 19.9 (8.8-35.5) cm long, 12.4 (0.6-26.7) cm wide, forming an angle of 28 (14-45)° with the rachis. Inflorescences branched 1?3 orders; prophylls and peduncular bracts not ribbed with elongate, unbranched fibers, flattened, deciduous; prophylls 6.8 (3.0-13.0) cm long, not short and asymmetrically apiculate, the surfaces not ridged, without unequally wide ridges; peduncular bracts 4.8 (3.2-7.5) cm long, well-developed, inserted 0.3 (0.1-0.7) cm above the prophyll; peduncles 8.3 (2.0-19.7) cm long, 4.2 (1.9-9.0) mm in diameter; rachillae 13 (3-43), 16.7 (6.5-32.0) cm long, 1.9 (1.0-3.4) mm in diameter, the surfaces without spiky, fibrous projections or ridges, drying brown, with faint to pronounced, short, transverse ridges, not filiform and not narrowed between the flower pits; flower pits tricussately or quadricussately arranged throughout the rachillae, the groups of pits closely spaced, glabrous internally; proximal lips without a central notch before anthesis, not recurved after anthesis, hood-shaped at anthesis, sometimes splitting post-anthesis; proximal and distal lips drying the same color as the rachillae, joined to form a raised cupule, the margins not overlapping; 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; nonfertilized pistillate flowers deciduous after anthesis; staminodial tubes crenulate or shallowly lobed at the apex, those of non-fertilized flowers not projecting and persistent after anthesis; fruits 6.6 (4.5-8.1) mm long, 5.6 (4.4-7.0) mm in diameter, the bases without a prominent stipe, the apices not conical, the surfaces not splitting at maturity, without fibers emerging, not bumpy and not apiculate; locular epidermis without operculum, smooth, without pores. (Henderson, A.J. 2011)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.

Comments and Curiosities

Uses: The Matsigenka of Peru, Shuar of Ecuador, Yuracaré/Trinitario, Tsimane/Mosetene and Mestizo of Bolivia, all use for thatch. The Shipibo-Conibo of Peru use it for Utensils and Tools. (Henderson, A.J. 2011)/Palmweb.