Arecaceae
Bactris

Bactris maraja Mart.

First published in Hist. Nat. Palm. 2: 93 (1826)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Central & S. Tropical America. It is a shrub or tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome. It is used as animal food and a medicine and for fuel and food.

Descriptions

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Distribution
Widespread and common from Costa Rica south through Central America, Colombia, and into the Amazon region; lowland and premontane rain forest, on terra firme or in inundated areas, at low elevations but occasionally reaching 1500m. Widespread from Central America to Bolivia, on both sides of the Andes. Distribution in Ecuador. In Ecuador it is fairly common E of the Andes, usually on terra firme, and in the NW, where it occurs in periodically flooded land dominated by Euterpe oleracea.
General Description
Understorey palm. Stems clustered, to 5 m tall and 3 cm in diameter. Spines on the leaf sheath and axis pale yellow to whitish grey, broad, and flat. Leaf blade 0.5-1.5 m long; pinnae 5-25 on each side, sigmoid, inserted in groups and spreading in different planes, the middle ones 15-50 cm long and 4.5-9 cm wide. Inflorescence 15-30 cm long; branches ca. 10, to 10 cm long, 2-3 mm in diameter. Female flowers scattered along the branches. ruit black, flattened at top, rostrate, smooth or rough, 1-2 cm in diameter; fruiting perianth with a 3 lobed calyx ca. half as long as the deeply 3-lobed, usually minutely bristly corolla; staminodial ring absent. Stems solitary or cespitose, usually in open clumps of 2-15 stems, 1-7(-10) m tall, 1-4 cm diam., spiny on internodes. Leaves 3-10; leaf spines yellowish and then black at base and apex, or brown, flattened, to 5(-10) cm long, moderate to dense on sheath, petiole, fewer on rachis; sheath 12-35 cm long, sheath, petiole, and rachis occasionally densely brown-tomentose; ocrea to 15 cm long; petiole 13-76 cm long; rachis 30-130 cm long; pinnae (2-)6-30 per side (occasionally leaf simple), irregularly arranged in clusters of 2-5, spreading in different planes, or regularly arranged and spreading in the same plane, sigmoid to lanceolate, long-acuminate, occasionally pilose abaxially; middle pinnae 20-48 x 3-7 cm. Inflorescences interfoliar; peduncle 11-18 cm long, recurved, not spiny or spinulose; prophyll 8- 26 cm long; peduncular bract 15-38 cm long, whitish brown-tomentose, velvety brown-tornentose, not spiny or occasionally with flattened, yellowish or brownish spines to 8 mm long especially at the apex; rachis 1-5 cm long; rachillae 2-17, 5-15 cm long, at anthesis densely brown tomentose; triads irregularly arranged among paired or solitary staminate flowers; staminate flowers 3.5-5 mm long, deciduous; sepal lobes 0.5- 1.5 mm long; petals 3-5 mm long; stamens 6; pistillode absent; pistillate flowers 3-4 mm long; calyx tubular, 2.5-4 mm long, rarely spinulose; corolla tubular, 2.5-4 mm long, usually spinulose; staminodes absent; fruits to 1.7 cm diam., widely depressed obovoid, rostrate, purple-black, usually minutely spinulose; mesocarp juicy; endocarp depressed-oblong, the sterile pores displaced longitudinally; endocarp fibers free, numerous, with juice sacs attached; fruiting perianth with deeply 3-lobed calyx half as long as the deeply 3-lobed, often spinulose corolla, without staminodial ring.
Vernacular
Bolivia: chontilla conguillo, shinishëoxo (Chacabo). Brazil: marajá, marajá pupunha, tupina'i (Arawete), ubim de espinho. Colombia: chontilla, espina. French Guiana: anuyawili (Wayâpi). Guyana: bunyashiri. Panama: chunga, gui (Kuna), gui wala (Kuna), mogor (Kuna), uvita. Peru: chambira ñeja, chonlilla, ñeja, ñejilla. Suriname: piritu (Trio), piritiumë (Trio). Venezuela: piritu, uvade montaña.
[PW]

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution
Nativa en Colombia; Alt. 0 - 1500 m.; Amazonia, Andes, Guayana y Serranía de La Macarena, Orinoquia, Pacífico, Valle del Magdalena.
Morphology General Habit
Arbusto, palma cespitosa
Conservation
Preocupación Menor
[CPLC]

Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes/

Vernacular
cachipay montañero, chacarrá, chascarrá, chascarray, chirquí, chonta, chontadurillo, chontaduro de búho, chontaduro de pescado, chontilla, cubarra, cubarro, espina, lata sabanera
[UNAL]

Distribution
Biogeografic region: Amazonia, Andean, Guiana Shield, Orinoquia, Pacific. Elevation range: 0–1500 m a.s.l. Native to Colombia. Colombian departments: Amazonas, Antioquia, Bolívar, Caquetá, Cauca, Chocó, Córdoba, Guainía, Guaviare, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Santander, Valle del Cauca, Vaupés, Vichada.
Habit
Shrub, Caespitose palm.
Conservation
National Red List of Colombia (2021): LC.
Ecology
Habitat according IUCN Habitats Classification: forest and woodland, shrubland, native grassland, wetlands (inland), artificial - terrestrial.
Vernacular
Buru-moj-quere, Chascarrá, Espina, Lata, Lata montañera, Tewpede
[UPFC]

Uses

Use Animal Food
Used as animal food.
Use Fuel
Used for fuels.
Use Food
Used for food.
Use Materials
Used as material.
Use Medicines
Medical uses.
[UPFC]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Neotropikey

    • Milliken, W., Klitgard, B. and Baracat, A. (2009 onwards), Neotropikey - Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics.
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Palmweb - Palms of the World Online

    • Palmweb 2011. Palmweb: Palms of the World Online. Published on the internet http://www.palmweb.org. Accessed on 21/04/2013
    • Content licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia

    • ColPlantA database
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0