Bactris hirta

Bactris (BAHK-triss) hirta (HEER-tah)
Habitat. Photo by André Cardoso.
Scientific Classification
Genus: Bactris (BAHK-triss) Species: hirta (HEER-tah)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Solitary & clustering, usually caespitose. Leaf type: Pinnate
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Brazil: aricanga-falsa-inteira, aricanga-falsa-partida, jawpe, marajá, marazaiwaran (Tembé), tucui, tucum-mirim, ubim rana. Colombia: chontaduro de rana. Suriname: kiskismaka. Venezuela: cubarro, cuivaro, espinita, guaro.

Habitat and Distribution

Common and widespread throughout the Amazon region and Atlantic coastal forest of Brazil; lowland or upland rain foreston terra firme, usually below 350 m elevation but occasionally to 1500 m.

Habitat. Photo by André Cardoso.

Description

Stems solitary or cespitose and forming small clumps, 0.5-3 m tall, 0.5-2 cm in diam., commonly covered with persistent, decaying leaf bases, spiny or not spiny on internodes. Leaves 3-8 per crown; leaf spines somewhat clustered, black, terete or sometimes flattened, 0.5-3 (-5) cm long, dense on sheath, fewer on petiole, usually absent from rachis, or spines absent; sheath 8-26 cm long, sheath, petiole, and rachis spinulose or brown-tomentose; ocrea to 1 cm long; petiole 6-89 cm long; rachis 15-80 cm long; blade simple or pinnate, pinnate leaves with 7-30 pinnae per side, regularly or irregularly arranged, spreading in the same plane, linear, linear-lanceolate or sigmoid, aristate, with fine spinules along the margins, usually with soft hairs to 3 mm long abaxially, and occasionally adaxially; simple leaves 23-80 cm long, 9-20 cm wide at rachis apex, sometimes lighter green abaxially, sometimes with prominent cross-veins, middle pinnae of pinnate leaves 10-37 x 1-3 cm. Inflorescences inter- or infrafoliar, usually borne among persistent leaf sheaths; peduncle 3-21 cm long, straight or curved, spinulose or not; prophyll 3-6 (-9) cm long; peduncular bract 9- 12 cm long, sparsely to densely covered with black or brown spines to 5 mm long; rachis 0-0.7 cm long; rachillae 1-4 (-6), 2.5- 7 cm long, usually forming a 45° angle with the stem, at anthesis densely whitish brown-tomentose, covered with brown; moniliform trichomes; triads regularly arranged almost throughout rachillae, paired or solitary staminate distally; staminate flowers 3-4 mm long, semipersistent or deciduous; sepal lobes 0.5-1 mm long; petals 3-4 mm long; stamens 6-7; pistillode absent; pistillate flowers 2-3.5 mm long; calyx annular, 0.5-1 mm long; corolla tubular, 2-3.5 mm long, tomentose, densely covered with long, flexuous, appressed, brown hairs, these exceeding the corolla; staminodes minute or absent; fruits 5-8 mm in diam., rarely to 1 cm long, globose to broadly obovoid, orange-red or red, afterwards becoming black, covered with fine, brown, deciduous spinules, rarely glabrous; mesocarp starchy; endocarp turbinate, the sterile pores slightly displaced longitudinally or equally spaced; endocarp fibers few, free; fruiting perianth with small, 3-lobed calyx and much longer, hairy, broadly 3-lobed corolla, without staminodial ring. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.

Comments and Curiosities

There are five subspecies: 1.) Bactris hirta var. hirta; Colombia (Amazonas) and Peru (Loreto) and Brazil (Amazonas) lowland rain forest on terra firme at 122-140 m elevation. Sheath and petiole densely brown-spinulose or-tomentose, leaf spines absent (rarely present); petiole 4-12 (-29) cm long; rachis 12- 16 cm long; blade simple, narrow to broadly obovate, deeply bifid, 18-33 cm long, 9-17 cm wide at apex of rachis, often spinulose marginally, abaxially and sometimes adaxially,with prominent cross-veins, lighter green abaxially. Fruits spinulose. The holotype of Bactris hirta subsp. pulehra (J .Trail 876/XCVIII) is problematic, because it has the short petiole and bifid blade typical of var. hirta, but a spiny sheath and petiole, typical of var. spruceana. Although it is thus somewhat intermediate, I choose to place it here. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb.

2.) Bactris hirta var. jenmanii; Guyana; upland rain forest, at 300-1500 m elevation. Sheath and petiole with scattered, black, flattened spines to 5 mm long, few to moderate on sheath, fewer or absent on petiole; petiole 6-20 cm long; rachis 15-20 cm long; blade simple, broadly obovate, deeply bifid apically, 30-40 cm long, 12-23 cm wide at rachis apex, spinulose and lighter green abaxially. Fruits glabrous or slightly spinulose. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb.

3.) Bactris hirta var. lakoi; Brasil (Amazonas, Peru (Loreto) and E Ecuador. Leaf blade to 1 m long, divided into 19-30 pinnae on each side, usually with numerous, soft, black bristles on both sides. Inflorescence with 2-5, whitish tomentose branches, each to 5 cm long. (Borchsenius F., Borgtoft-Pedersen H. and Baslev H. 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)/Palmweb.

4.) Bactris hirta var. pectinata; Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Uses: the leaves are used for thatch, the fruit is edible.

5.) Bactris hirta var. spruceana; Widespread and common in Colombia (Amazonas, Guainía, Vaupés), Venezuela (Amazonas, Bolívar), the Guianas, Peru (Loreto, Madre de Dios, San Martín), Brazil (A mapa, Amazonas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Maranhao, Para, Pernambuco, Rondonia), and Bolivia (Pando); usually in lowland rain forest on terra firme, at 106-1670 m elevation. Sheath spinulose or tomentose, sparsely to densely covered with black spines 1-3(-5) cm long; petiole 40-89 cm long; blade simple or pinnate; pinnate leaves with 7-30 pinnae per side, linear, regularly or irregularly arranged, spreading in the same plane; middle pinnae to 37 x 1-2 cm (rarely pinnate leaf with 2-5, broad, sigmoid, densely pilose pinnae, with the apical pinna much wider than the others); simple or partially divided blades to 80 cm long, to 20 cm wide at rachis apex. Fruits spinulose. Types were not designated for several of Drude?s names (Bactris geonomoides, Bactris geonomoides var. setosa, Bactris hylophila var. macrocarpa, Bactris hylophila var. glabreseens, Bactris hylophila var. nana). Although these were based on Trail's specimens, it is not clear from either Drude (1881) or from the specimens which are the types. (Henderson, A.J., Bactris (Palmae) in Flora Neotropica Monographs 79. 2000)/Palmweb.

Uses: The fruit is edible.