''Butia catarinensis'' is a mid-sized species of ''

Butia ''Butia'' is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae, native to the South American countries of Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. Many species produce edible fruits, which are sometimes used to make alcoholic beverages and other foods. ...

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

native to the states of

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

, Santa Catarina in Brazil.

Etymology

The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

refers to the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina where it is the most distributed.

Taxonomy & nomenclature

These palms were only named as a new species in 2010, although the populations of this species were known. Before 2010 the palms growing in this region were classified as ''

Butia capitata ''Butia capitata'', also known as jelly palm, is a '' Butia'' palm native to the states of Minas Gerais and Goiás in Brazil. It is known locally as ''coquinho-azedo'' or ''butiá'' in (northern) Minas Gerais.Fruits of Butia capitata (Mart.) Becc ...

''. J. R. Mattos reclassified this population as ''B. capitata'' var. ''odorata'' in 1977 (see ''B. odorata''), As such, a number of palms under cultivation in botanical gardens, private collections or in the nursery trade under the name ''B. capitata'' or ''B. capitata'' var. ''odorata'' are in fact this species. Larry R. Noblick and

Harri Lorenzi Harri Lorenzi (born 1949) is a Brazilian agronomic engineer, author on trees of the Atlantic Mata and a collaborating agronomist of the garden of Fazenda Cresciumal, Ruy De Souza Queiroz. Between his workmanships, he published four books in the e ...

described ''B. catarinensis'', ''B. matogrossensis'' and ''B. pubispatha'' in 2010 in the ''Flora brasileira: Arecaceae (palmeiras)'' by Lorenzi ''et al.'' (Noblick also described ''B. lepidotispatha'' in 2010).

Description

This is a solitary-trunked palm, the trunk being , exceptionally , tall, with a diameter of . The trunk is covered with the persistent bases of the old palm fronds. These fronds are 9–32 in number and arranged in a spiral around the trunk. The blade is by . The petiole is

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin '' glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

(hairless), in length and wide, flat on top and round elsewhere. The margins of the petioles are densely toothed with numerous, robust, up to long spines, and many flattened fibres when the leaves are young. The rachis of the leaf is in length, with 48-62 pairs of pinnae (leaflets) which are

glaucous ''Glaucous'' (, ) is used to describe the pale grey or bluish-green appearance of the surfaces of some plants, as well as in the names of birds, such as the glaucous gull (''Larus hyperboreus''), glaucous-winged gull (''Larus glaucescens''), g ...

-coloured and arranged uniformly along the rachis. Unlike other species of ''Butia'' (except ''B. odorata''), these are usually in the same plane, but sometimes inserted at very slightly divergent angels along the rachis, but without giving the leaf a plumose aspect such as in ''Syagrus'', and with each pair of pinnae forming a neat V-shape. The pinnae in the middle of the leaf blade are long and in width. The inflorescence is branched to the 1st degree, has a peduncle long and wide, and has a

prophyll In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or o ...

long, wide, and covered in a brown

tomentum Tomentum may refer to: * Plant trichomes, a covering of closely matted or fine hairs on plant leaves. * Tomentum (anatomy), short, soft pubescence or a covering of fine, soft hairs. {{disambig ...

. The young inflorescence develops in a

, lightly striated, woody spathe which is in length and has an enlarged portion at the end which is long wide and ending in a short, sharply pointed tip. The axis (width?) of the inflorescence is long. The rachis of the inflorescence is long and has 35-135 rachillae (branches) which are long. The flowers can be coloured yellow, greenish-yellow, yellow and violet, or completely violet. The staminate (male) flowers are in length; the pistillate (female) flowers are . The shapes of both the fruit and nut are ovoid. The ripe fruit are coloured yellow, orange, or red. The fruit are long, wide, have a persistent

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

, and have a yellow, juicy, lightly fibrous flesh. The nut is hard, long, wide, dark-brown coloured, contains a homogeneous

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo and ...

, and has 1 to 2, rarely 3, seeds within. The nut is without a beak or other sort protuberance on its apex.

Similar species

It is very similar to ''

Butia odorata ''Butia odorata'', also known as the South American jelly palm, jelly palm, or pindo palm, is a ''Butia'' palm native to southernmost Brazil and Uruguay. This slow-growing palm grows up to 10m, although it is often less tall. It is identifiable ...

'', a palm with a similar habitat but further south along the coast, but may be distinguished from this species by its much smaller height, almost always to just .

Distribution

It is native to the states of Santa Catarina and

in Brazil. It grows in the lowlands situated in a relatively narrow strip along the coast from the municipalities of

Araquari Araquari is a municipality in the state of Santa Catarina in the South region of Brazil. The municipality of Araquari was basically colonized by Azorean immigrants, who arrived at the coast of Santa Catarina between 1748 and 1756, and since ...

in Santa Catarina to Osório in Rio Grande do Sul.

Habitat

It is typically found growing not far from the coast in '' restinga'', a type of dry, coastal, tropical thorn-scrub. It grows on coastal dunes and older stabilised dunes further inland. It appears to prefer densely vegetated or wooded environments. It grows in sandy and rocky soils.

Uses

The edible fruit of this palm are collected for myriad uses where the trees grow naturally in Brazil.

Conservation

As of 2018 the

Centro Nacional de Conservação da Flora The Centro Nacional de Conservação da Flora (CNCFlora) is a Brazilian nonprofit organization that determines conservation statuses of various Brazilian plant species. It intends to create a Red List (''lista vermelha'' in Portuguese) of plants � ...

has not yet rated the conservation status for Brazil, and it is listed as 'not evaluated'.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16539427 catarinensis