''Aphandra'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family native to the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

vegetation in South America ( Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru). Its only species is ''Aphandra natalia'', sometimes called mastodon palm or fiber palm, and is used by indigenous peoples in the construction of

brooms A broom (also known in some forms as a broomstick) is a cleaning tool consisting of usually stiff fibers (often made of materials such as plastic, hair, or corn husks) attached to, and roughly parallel to, a cylindrical handle, the broomstick. I ...

and other products.Riffle, Robert L. and Craft, Paul (2003) ''An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms''. Portland: Timber Press. / (Page 250) This plant is commercially exploited for its edible fruits, and for its leaf sheath and petiole fibers. This fiber is almost equal to the fiber extracted from ''

Attalea funifera ''Attalea funifera'', the Bahia piassava, is a species of palm (family Arecaceae), native to eastern Brazil. It is a major source of piassava fiber Fiber or fibre (from la, fibra, links=no) is a natural or artificial substance that is s ...

'' and ''

Leopoldinia piassaba ''Leopoldinia piassaba'', the Para piassava, piassava fiber palm or piassava palm, is a palm native to black water rivers in Amazonian Brazil and Venezuela, from which is extracted piassava, a high caliber and water resistant fiber. Piassaba fib ...

'', which is called

piassava Piassava, also piaçava (), piaçaba (), piasaba, pissaba, piassaba, and piaçá (),The piaçá form occurs mostly in Portugal and is considered less correct by some dictionaries. is a fibrous product of Brazilian palm species '' Attalea funifera' ...

. The genus name is a combination of ''

Ammandra ''Ammandra'' is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family found in Colombia and Ecuador, where it is endangered. The sole species is ''Ammandra decasperma'', although another species name has been proposed. They are a pinnate-leav ...

'' and '' Phytelephas'', two closely related palm genera, and the epithet "''natalia''" honors

Natalie Uhl Natalie Whitford Uhl (1919–2017) was an American botanistIPNI: Natalie Whitf ...

, modern palm taxonomist.

Description

''Aphandra natalia'' grows from single trunks, reaching over 12 m in height, being gray to tan in color. These trees usually remain covered in the bases of old leaves giving them a seeming trunk diameter of nearly 1 meter, however the actual trunk size when cleaned of the leaf bases is nearer to 30 cm. The vine-like, pendent fibers of the leaf bases resemble those of ''

'' from which brooms are also made. The actual

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

of ''A. natalia'' are usually 4.5 m in length but are borne on long, 2.5 m petioles giving them an overall length of 7 m. The leaflets are reduplicate, pinnately cleft and dark green in color.Uhl, Natalie W. and Dransfield, John (1987) ''Genera Palmarum - A classification of palms based on the work of Harold E. Moore''. Lawrence, Kansas: Allen Press. / They are sexually

dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...

and markedly dimorphic; male plants produce an unusual 2.75 m inflorescence with many clustered branches of yellow flowers with females producing shorter tufts of yellow flowers surrounded by green to brown bracts. A mature infructescence resembles "a medieval club with spikes if the large amount of hairy black fiber was removed".

Distribution and habitat

''A. natalia'' grows in eastern Ecuador through northern Peru to western Brazil reaching altitudes of 800 m. They are an under-story palm in the

stretching to the foothills of the Andes.

References

External links

* *
West Amazonian Piassaba Fiber Aphandra natalia
documenting traditional knowledge about a little-known source of plant fiber and its sustainable management

{{Taxonbar, from=Q290458 Ceroxyloideae Trees of the Amazon Trees of Ecuador Trees of Brazil Trees of Peru Monotypic Arecaceae genera Dioecious plants