Prestoea ensiformis

Prestoea (pres-toh-EH-ah) ensiformis (ehn-sih-FOHR-mis)
Photo by Paul Craft
Scientific Classification
Genus: Prestoea (pres-toh-EH-ah) Species: ensiformis (ehn-sih-FOHR-mis)
Synonyms
None set.
Native Continent
America
Morphology
Habit: Solitary Leaf type: Entire leaf bifid & pinnate.
Culture
Survivability index
Common names
Colombia: rabihorcao; Ecuador: chontilla, palma jibara; Panama: Puerto Rico; Peru: cuyol, palmita.

Habitat and Distribution

Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panamá, and Peru. Costa Rica (Alajuela, Puntarenas),

Photo by Paul Craft

Panama (Chiriquí, Coclé, Colón, Panamá, San Blas, Veraguas), western Andean slopes of Colombia (Chocó, Nariño, Risaralda, Valle) and Ecuador (El Oro, Esmeraldas, Los Rios, Morona-Santiago, Pastaza, Zamora-Chinchipc), and eastern Andean slopes of Peru (Cusco, Húanuco); rain forest on steep slopes at 100-1300 m, occasionally reaching 1800 m. Like other Andean palms, this species crosses over from western Andean slopes in Colombia and Ecuador to eastern slopes in Peru. (Gloria Galeano and A. Henderson)/Palmweb.

Description

Stems cespitose or solitary, erect, 2.5-9 m tall, 3-13 cm in diam., brown or gray, often covered with persistent leaf bases, with reddish roots visible at base. Leaves 5-14, erect or arching, pinnate or rarely irregularly pinnate or simple; sheath closed for ca. ½ its length, rarely forming a crownshaft, persistent on the stem, 0.3-1 m long including a short, blunt, fibrous ligule less than 1 cm long, often reddish, fibrous at the margins distally, densely to moderately covered abaxially with appressed, white or brown peltate-lacerate scales, glabrescent, leaving punctations; petiole 0.15-1.1 m long, with scales like those of sheath, or sometimes glabrous abaxially, glabrescent; rachis 0.4-2.3 m long, with scales like those of sheath, glabrescent; pinnae 36-49 per side, regularly arranged and spreading horizontally in the same plane, subopposite to alternate, linear-lanceolate, long acuminate, with a prominent midvein and several lateral veins, with midvein essentially glabrous abaxially or with a few small ramenta, with punctations abaxially; basal pinna 36-55 x 0.5-1 cm; middle pinnae 50-82 x 3-5 cm; apical pinna 22-44 x 1.3-4.5 cm, or rarely the leaves simple or almost simple, then 1-l.l m long, 30-35 cm wide, with 1-4 separate pinnae distally and with 14-15 prominent veins each side and deeply bifid apically. Inflorescences infrafoliar or interfoliar (usually in the axils of old pcrsistent leaf sheaths), erect or arching or horizontal, straight or curved in bud; peduncle 27-93 cm long, 1-2 cm in diam., terete, densely covered with brown tomentum, glabrescent; prophyll 13-60 cm long, 4-5 cm diam., reddish, sparsely covered with whitish brown scales; peduncular bract 0.7-2.2 m long including a 2-4(-8) cm long umbo, inserted either near prophyll or halfway up the peduncle, densely covered abaxially with brown tomentum persistent; rachis 0.2-1.4 m long, white at anthesis, with similar tomentum to that of peduncle; rachillae (13-) 18-60, 35-72 cm long distally, 21-45 cm long proximally, 1-2 mm diam. at anthesis, 2-3 mm in diam. in fruit, swollen at base, with loose to sometimes dense clusters of brownish, rarely whitish, flexuous, flattened, deciduous hairs to 0.5 mm long, occasionally almost glabrous or with crustose hairs, glabrescent; flowers in triads proximally, paired or solitary staminate distally, superficial on the rachillae; triad bracteole short, apiculate; first flower bracteole obscure, second and third flower bracteoles ± equal, apiculate, 0.3 mm long; staminate flowers 4-7 mm long, sessile; sepals deltate, 1.5 mm long, gibbous, yellowish brown and lighter-colored than the petals when dry; petals ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-5 mm long; stamens arranged round a very short receptacle; filaments to 2 mm long, linear, flattened; anthers to 2.5 mm long; pistillode 1-1.5 mm long, deeply trifid at the apex; pistillate flowers 2-3.5 mm long; sepals very widely ovate, 2-2.5 mm long, fleshy, minutely ciliate; petals widely ovate, 2.5-3.5 mm long; staminodes minute or absent or well developed, digitate. Fruits globose, 0.7-1 cm in diam., with lateral stigmatic remains; epicarp purpleblack, minutely tuberculate; seeds globose; endosperm deeply ruminate; eophyll bifid. (Gloria Galeano and A. Henderson)/Palmweb. Editing by edric.

This is a rather variable species. Most specimens from Central America have a dense covering of scales on the abaxial surface of the leaf rachis , whereas those from South America are usually glabrous. As noted and illustrated by Henderson & de Nevers (1988), there are two inflorescence types in this species; at higher elevations the inflorescence is elongate and erect in bud, whereas at lower elevations it is shorter and curved in bud. Some populations in Panama and Colombia have simple leaves (de Nevers et al. 7738. Hammel et al. 14473, de Nevers 7212 [type of Prestoea integrifolia], and R. Bernal et al. 1525), or almost simple leaves with a few separate pinnae at the apex, rather than at the base. which is more usual in palms. (Gloria Galeano and A. Henderson)/Palmweb.

Culture

Cold Hardiness Zone: 10b

Comments and Curiosities

Prestoea ensiformis is a palm from the subcanopy of tropical lowland or montane rain forest to about 1500 m from Costa Rica south to Peru. It forms a slender, solitary trunk to about 10 m tall which holds a spreading crown of finely pinnate leaves. In cultivation it is rarely seen but would make a fine ornamental for the tropical and frost free warm temperate garden. The rare and absolutely stunning, 'entire-leaf' form of P. ensiformis from Panama, once used to be a separate species, P. integrifolia, now it has been included in P. ensiformis, which is a species widely distributed in premontane or montane rainforest, between Costa Rica and Peru from 350 to 1800 m. While it is virtually unknown in cultivation, it would make a stunning ornamental for humid warm temperate or tropical climates. (RPS,com)

Uses: The palm hearts are eaten in Ecuador. Elsewhere: fruits, house posts, thatch, hunting gear: arrows, blow dart gun, spear, basketry, firewood, decoration: leaves, other: young leaves—woven fabrics, spoons.