| Field notes | (J. bataua subsp. bataua). Spanish: "Ungurahua". A solitary tree on terra firme. The base growing in a 120 cm wide and 35 cm high mound of adventitious roots and humus. The trunk 11 m tall, 27 cm in diam at the base, 22 cm in diam below the crown, smooth grey. The crown consists of ca 14 more or less erect leaves. Each leaf encircling the trunk completely with a ca 10 cm long sheath, the petiole 30 cm wide at the base tapering to 10 cm wide below the blade, adaxially deeply channeled, adaxially smooth, green; blade 820 x 260 cm with 114 pinnae on each side, these inserted as? even intervals and all arranged in one plane; a brown wool copious between the leafsheaths and petioles. Inflorescences 4 inserted at nodes no 3,4,5, and 6 below the crown; the upper inflorescence with male and female flowers on the same branches, the basal half of the branches with female flowers at regular intervals and each female flower with a male flower on each side, the apical half of the branches with only male flowers; the tepals hard and rigid even when fresh; the second inflorescence with immature fruits, third inflorescence with green fruits the si?? of the mature ones and the 4th inflorescence with mature fruits which are dark purple to almost black. The prophyll ca 80 cm long, conspicuously two keeled and falling off. The spathe brown on the outside, light yellow on the inside; falling off. Peduncle with thick 12 cm long forking part inserted on the trunk; a 6 cm long cylindrical part 9 cm in diam and a 25 cm long conicas part from which the flowering branches originates on the sides and lower surface; the longest branches to 125? cm long, light yellow in color. Uses: The mesocarp of the mature fruit is used to extract an oil. We harvested the plant at 3 PM and came back to the house at 3/30 and placed the fruits in warm but not hot water for an hour at 4/30 the water was thrown away and the fruits left to dry in the opened spathe for two days. Some of the fruits were used to make a chicha at this point. The mesocarp which was now soft was rubbed off in water and mixed with boiled plantains to make a sweet very tasty drink. To continue the extraction of the oil the mesocarp was rubbed of and heated in a pot to evaporate the water and the oil was skimmed off with a spoon. |
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