Oenocarpus balickii
Oenocarpus (oh-eh-no-KAR-puhs) balickii (bah-LEEK-ee) | |||||||
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At km 60 of the BR-307, already in Amazon territory, near the branch to the Moa river. Brazil. Photo by Dr. Evandro Ferreira. | |||||||
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Contents
Habitat and Distribution
Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela. Lowland rain forests, on land that is not subject to seasonal inundation, at elevations from 150 - 350 metres.Description
Oenocarpus balickii is a single-stemmed palm, usually growing 7 - 14 metres tall with some specimens to 20 metres. The unbranched stem can be 6 - 12 cm in diameter, it is topped by a crown of 7 - 11 large leaves.
Solitary palm; trunk 10.32 m long, 8 cm in diameter. 6 contemporaneous leaves. Leaf ragged (6 leaves sampled) 112-120 pairs of pinnae in groups of 2-6, in different directions, regularly disposed in one plane in the 30 cm toward the apex; shealth 41 cm long 30 cm in diameter; petiole 0-5 cm; rachis 306-333 cm long; median pinna 55-64.5 cm long x 2.9-3.5 cm wide. Inflorescence 57 rachillae; 38.2-40.5 cm (m=39.6, r=0.8; n=10) base without flower 4.7-7.0 cm; median part with pistillate flowers, 12.5-17.5 cm long; apical part with staminate flowers 17.0-19.6 cm; Infructescence: 61 rachillae Fruit blue-black when ripe. Editing by edric.
Culture
Comments and Curiosities
Etymology: The specific epithet 'Balickii' is a tribute to the great American ethnobotanical researcher Michael J. Balick, who had studied Oenocarpus in his doctoral dissertation (1980), and published an extensive work on the systematics of the group in 1986. the bacaba-of-caranaí in Acre in Acre territory, bacaba-of-caranaí has only been found in the Juruá valley, always in areas of primary forest land.
Uses: Oils as well as a beverage are prepared by the Shawi indians of Peru.
Oenocarpus balickii F. Kahn (sinamillo: Peru). This recently described species (Kahn 1990) is found in Amazonian Peru, Brazil, Colombia and perhaps elsewhere. It is distinguished from O. mapora by its solitary habit, greater number of pinnae and smaller fruit. It is common in well-drained sites in primary forest, where it can be found in great abundance. Its fruit is used to make a beverage, similar to that made from patauá.
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TUESDAY, MARCH 23, 2010 The palm 'bacaba' or 'abacaba-of-caranaí' (Oenocarpus balickii Kahn) native of Acre historical and taxonomic notes on the 'other' bacaba Acre by Dr. Evandro Ferreira. The palm tree depicted in the pictures of this article, scientifically known as Oenocarpus balickii Kahn is known in Cruzeiro do Sul and neighboring regions as 'bacaba' or 'bacaba-of-caranaí'. It is noteworthy that in Acre there is another native tree, which occurs throughout the state, also known as bacaba. Its scientific name is Oenocarpus mapora H. Karsten, and their fruit is that it is the 'bacaba wine'. It is a very common species, also known as bacabinha including being grown as an ornamental or fruit in Acre cities. The bacaba-of-caranaí, which I consider a rare occurrence in Acre was described scientifically from botanical samples collected in 1989 in the Peruvian research station 'Jenaro Herrena' (Department of Loreto, Requena province, Ucayali River) by French scientist Francis Kahn. The publication of the species was made in Switzerland journal Candollea (No.45) in 1990. However, its scientific name, authorship and publication date could have been others, not for the strong personality and the taxonomic vision 'aggregator' (lumper) the first researcher to find this species in the field: Wessels Boer. Wessels Boer (1936-?) Was a Dutch botanist who worked in South America in the 60's, when Suriname was still a Dutch colony. He was the first scholar to observe in practice that there was an 'excess' of scientific names published for native palms of the Americas. That is, the real diversity palm encountered in the field was actually less than the amount of published scientific names. Already in his first work on the American palm ('Indigenous palm of Suriname', 1965), he warned that the Attalea genres (which include known uricuri and jaci) Geonoma (ubim) and Bactris (the coconuts Maharajas) were 'intractable' and incomprehensible if someone tried to study them using the existing literature at the time. Correctly, he pointed out that researchers of the past, including Martius (German), Barbosa Rodrigues (Brazil), Liberty Bailey (American) and especially Max Burret (German), had contributed greatly to the chaotic situation of the taxonomy of palm trees in the region. Were hundreds of names in the literature could likely be found in the field. Many species were described based on differences in size, fruit color, presence or absence of one or another type of trichomes (hair, spikes, etc.). The solution Wessels Boer found to address the issue of excessive names was initially put as synonymous with a few species, dozens of other species names whose description published in magazines and books do not allow for the positive identification of botanical specimens sent to the herbaria. To make this junction (lumping) Wessels Boer consulted botanical samples that had given rise to new species (type material) and rightly preserved the older names. This initial shock must have had profound influence on the rest of the short but influential, Wessls Boer career. His great literary contribution, the revision of the genus Geonoma (1968), is a testament to tenacity and dedication rarely seen in the taxonomy of the history of American palms, considering the working conditions at the time. For this reason, when he decided to devote himself to describe the flora of Venezuela palm trees, it was expected that many new species that eventually would find during their work in the field were possibly classified in the range of level or 'embedded' within species-complex, or highly variable species. And that's what happened when he found some palm trees that had some similarity, but they were not exactly identical to any of the Oenocarpus genus described to that time. Given the situation, he decided to give the name Oenocarpus bacaba parvus variety their new discovery. This name was first published in an article in Acta Botánica Venezuélica magazine (1971), as a preview for his complete works, 'Indigenous Palmas de Venezuela', whose manuscript was in the final stages of preparation. The publication of the new species - only the name - without the corresponding botanical description did not validate the scientific name chosen by Wessels Boer, which only happened in 1988, when the Pittieria magazine finally published a special issue dedicated to the manuscript of the Dutch botanist. The reason for the delay in publication of the work was due to the fact that in the mid-70s, Wessels Boer have completely abandoned botany, getting the manuscript shelved at the University of Merida (Venezuela). In the end, it is thought that the publication came out basically as it was in the original manuscript, for any suggestions of changes made by the reviewers could obviously not be met. Moreover, this was the first work (today only) to handle all of the native palms of Venezuela. With the publication of new species of Wessels Boer in the range of level, taxonomically opened up the possibility of increasing the same to species level since, according to taxonomic rules, a name does not have priority outside of their ranking. In other words, the eventual transformation of Oenocarpus bacaba parvus variety in species does not imply the adoption of the name Oenocarpus parvus. And that actually happened in 1990, when Francis Kahn published Oenocarpus kind balickii from samples found in Peru. The 'Balickii' name is a tribute to the great American ethnobotanical researcher Michael J. Balick, who had studied Oenocarpus in his doctoral dissertation (1980) and published an extensive work on the systematics of the group in 1986. The bacaba-of-caranaí in Acre: In Acre territory, bacaba-of-caranaí has only been found in the Juruá Valley, always in areas of primary forest land - rare in disturbed areas - or in campinaranas on very sandy soils. The botanical collections of the kind made in Acre indicate that it occurs in the Sierra region of Moa, outskirts of Mancio Lima and Cruzeiro do Sul. In the latter, we find an individual in an extension known as 'fine cinnamon', virtually within the city, small forest fragment which account for nearly 10 genera of palms! The photos presented here were made at km 60 of the BR-307, already in Amazon territory, near the branch to the Moa river. In the countryside, bacaba-of-caranaí can be differentiated from bacabinha (Oenocarpus mapora) for its solitary habit, more robust stipe (larger diameter) and smaller fruit. The patauá (Oenocarpus bataua), it differs by noticeably inferior size and leaves with pinnae (leaflets) irregular and pointed in different directions - in patauá the pinas are regularly arranged along the sheet, forming a single plane. Importantly, under the taxonomic point of view, bacaba caranaí is much closer bacaba the Amazons (Oenocarpus bacaba) and bacaba-of-range (Oenocarpus distichus) - found in Rondônia and Brazil central0 - than the patauá and native bacabinha Acre. Besides Brazil (Acre, Amazonas and Rondônia) bacaba-of-caranaí occurs in Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. |
External Links
- Glossary of Palm Terms
- MODERN BOTANICAL LATIN
- "Just To Be Clear"
- http://ambienteacreano.blogspot.com/2010/03/palmeira-bacaba-ou-bacaba-de-caranai.html
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).
Many Special Thanks to Ed Vaile for his long hours of tireless editing and numerous contributions.