Aiphanes macroloba Burret

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. 100 - 1400 m.; Andes, Pacífico.

Morphology General Habit

Arbusto, palma cespitosa

Conservation

Casi Amenazada

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

chirquía

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

General Description

Caespitose, with 1-5 stems, these up to 2 m tall, 2-3 cm diam., erect or decumbent, sparsely armed with black, to 3 cm long spines, often with suckers and adventitious roots both at base and at the distal nodes, sometimes just below the crown. Leaves 5-8, borne more or less horizontally, lamina entire or divided in a large many-ribbed top segment and 2-3 one-ribbed basal pinnae; sheath 7-17 cm long, sparsely armed with black, to 1 cm long spines; petiole 10-36 cm long, with a brown, scaly indument and few brown, to 1 cm long spines; rachis 36-71 cm long, densely brown-spinulose abaxially; blade (or apical pinna in divided leaves) 30-82 x 18-37 cm, with 13-20 ribs, bifid at apex for 10-19 cm, outer margin praemorse, adaxial side with a row of fine, ca. 1 cm long soft spines along each rib, otherwise glabrous or sparsely spinulose, abaxial side densely covered with brown, ca. 0.5 mm long spinules; basal pinnae of divided blades one-ribbed, narrowly to broadly cuneate, to 18 cm long and 8 cm wide, obliquely praemorse at apex, with a 2-4 cm long finger-like projection on the distal margin. Inflorescence interfoliar, erect, spicate; prophyll 11 -21 cm long, 1-2 cm wide; peduncular bract 38-81 cm long, 1-2 cm wide, with a brown indument, unarmed or with some brown, to 1 cm long spines; peduncle 34-120 cm long, 3-5 mm diam. at apex, with a light brown indument, and armed with numerous brown, ca. 3 mm long spinules, and sometimes also a few black, to 1 cm long spines; spike 12-28 cm long, 4-10 mm diam., brown to black spinulose, with triads for ca. ½ of the length, distally with dyads of two staminate flowers or one pistillate and one staminate flower; flower groups deeply sunken. Staminate flowers orange or greenish yellow in bud, white at anthesis, 4-7 mm long, larger than the pistillale ones; sepals narrowly triangular, connate for up to ½ their length, 1.5-3 mm long; petals connate basally for 1-1.5 mm, valvate distally, 4-6.5 mm long; filaments ca. 1 mm long, anthers nearly square, 0.3-0.9 mm long; pistillode minute. Pistillate flowers 3.5-4.5 mm long; sepals free, imbricate, 2.7-3 mm long; petals briefly connate at base, valvate, 3.5-4.5 mm long; staminodial cup 1-1.5 mm tall, nearly truncate; pistil ca. 2 mm long, 0.6 mm diam., glabrous. Fruit ellipsoid, rostrate, ca. 10 mm long, 7 mm diam., red or orange when ripe; endocarp smooth. Understorey palm. Stem adscending or erect, to 3 m long, 2-3 cm in diameter, often with suckers at the basal nodes. Leaf blade simple, 30-85 x 15-40 cm, with the outer margin jagged, densely covered below with light brown bristles. Inflorescence unbranched; peduncle 40-100 cm long; spike 10-30 cm long, 4-10 mm in diameter. Flowers greenish yellow to orange in bud, white at anthesis. Fruits elliptic, ca. 10 x 7 mm, orange to red.

Distribution

W Colombia and NW Ecuador, in tropical and premontane wet and pluvial forest. Western Colombia and Ecuador from the department of Antioquia in the north, along the western slopes of Cordillera Occidental and occasionally also in the Pacific lowlands south to the Province of Esmeraldas in northern Ecuador.

Vernacular

Peganoré (Coaiquer); palmito (Ecuador).

Habitat

In lowland and premontane rain forest, reaching ca. 1400 m in northwestern Colombia and ca. 1000 m in northwestern Ecuador.

Use

The Coaiquer Indians in Ecuador eat the palm heart.