''Butia capitata'', also known as jelly palm, is a ''

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

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

and

Goiás Goiás () is a Brazilian state located in the Center-West region. Goiás borders the Federal District and the states of (from north clockwise) Tocantins, Bahia, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso do Sul and Mato Grosso. The state capital is Goiânia. ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It is known locally as ''coquinho-azedo'' or ''butiá'' in (northern) Minas Gerais.Fruits of Butia capitata (Mart.) Becc as good sources of β-carotene and provitamin A. Juliana Pereira Faria, Egle M. A. Siqueira, Roberto Fontes Vieira and Tânia da Silveira Agostini-Cost, Revista Brasileira de Fruticultura, Oct. 2011, vol.33, no.spe1, This palm grows up to 8m (exceptionally 10m). It has feather palm pinnate leaves that arch inwards towards a thick stout trunk. Palms cultivated around the world under the name ''Butia capitata'' are actually almost all ''B. odorata''. The real ''B. capitata'' is not notably

hardy Hardy may refer to: People * Hardy (surname) * Hardy (given name) * Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica * Mount Hardy, Enderby Land * Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island * Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands Australia * Hardy, Sout ...

, nor widely cultivated. In

it flowers from May to July and is in fruit from November to February. Ripe fruit are about the size of large cherry, and yellowish/orange in color, but can also include a blush towards the tip.

Taxonomy

This taxon was first scientifically described in 1826 as ''Cocos capitata'' in the

Historia Naturalis Palmarum ''Historia naturalis palmarum: opus tripartitum'' ("Natural History of Palms, a work in three volumes") is a highly illustrated, three-volume botany, botanical book of Arecaceae, palms (Arecaceae) by German botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Ma ...

Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius Carl Friedrich Philipp (Karl Friedrich Philipp) von Martius (17 April 1794 – 13 December 1868) was a German botanist and explorer. Life Martius was born at Erlangen, the son of Prof Ernst Wilhelm Martius, court apothecary. He graduated PhD f ...

, who described and illustrated the palm from sketches and herbarium collections he made on montane grasslands near the Serra de Santo Antônio,

. In 1970 Sidney Fredrick Glassman moved this species, along with all other ''Butia'', to '' Syagrus'', but in 1979 he changed his mind and moved everything back.

Uses

The fruits are locally harvested from the wild between November and February to make juices, liquor, marmalades and ice-cream. The fruit has orange, sometimes red, skin. The pulp is bright orange, highly aromatic, somewhat oily, and quite fibrous. The pulp can be frozen for industrial production. In the north of Minas Gerais state ''B. capitata'' juice has been added to some public school lunches. An oil can be extracted from the nuts which is quite similar to coconut oil.

Nutrition

The pulp is a good source of

β-carotene β-Carotene is an organic, strongly coloured red-orange pigment abundant in fungi, plants, and fruits. It is a member of the carotenes, which are terpenoids (isoprenoids), synthesized biochemically from eight isoprene units and thus having 40 ...

and provitamin A compared with other fruits usually consumed. A glass of juice containing 100g of ''B. capitata'' pulp can provide 40% of the daily vitamin A requirements for children aged under eight by the standards of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, En ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2705848

capitata Capitata is a suborder of Hydrozoa, a class of marine invertebrates belonging to the phylum Cnidaria. Characteristics Members of this suborder are characterised by the tentacles of the polyps terminating in knobs. In some species these are o ...

Trees of Argentina Trees of Brazil Trees of Uruguay Ornamental trees Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari