| Field notes | Stem cespitose, with 12 well developed and to 8 m tall, 8 cm diam. at middle, smooth, brown below, becoming green above, nodes 16 cm apart. Leaves 10, inserted 12 cm apart at the top of the crownshaft; sheaths forming a distinct crownshaft, 86 cm long from base to lowest petiole, closed for most of its length, purple-green below, green above; petiole absent (5 cm); rachis 230 cm long, ridged - flat above rounded below, slightly reddish; pinnae all in one horizontal plane, evenly spaced, 45 per side, lower one 61 x 0.4 cm, middle one 77 x 4 cm, apical one 37 x 2 cm. Inflorescences infrafoliar; peduncle 12 cm long, 2 - 4 cm diam.; rachis 26 cm long; rachillae 34, 23 - 35 cm long, borne on all sides of rachis. N.v. palmito. Palm hearts are collected locally, but only on contract when requesed by the factory in Quito. Palmitos are collected from Mindo to Puerto Quito. The price is ca. 30 sucres per palmito, and a man can collect 50 per day. People in Mindo used to collect them, but less so now than before. They are not cultivated, nor sold in markets, but local people eat them with pork which is supposed to be very good. The plants left in pastures are much bigger than those growing in the forest, and since the stems are cespitose, collecting palmitos does not kill the plant. |
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