The Beautiful Euterpes

[amazondk]

I got a bit inspired while looking at Euterpes in the cold hardiness thread on Euterpe olearcea. The eutepes are such graceful palms that I never get tired of looking at. Here in my area they are one of the dominate plams in the landscape. The euterpe precatoria is the standout and a native. And, people plant the Eutepre olearcea all over the place and they have also escaped from cultivation around the city. You find little spots in Manaus full of palms.

This spot is a vacant lot next to a stream through town not far from my house. I drive by here all the time and decided to go take a few pictures this morning. You can see the contrasts between the towering Euterpe precatorias with their solitary stems and the clumping Euterpe olearceas. They also normally grow where Mauritias are nearby.

Please post any Euterpe pictures you may have of these species of Euterpes and others. I am going to make an effort to grow all of the species on my place in the country.

dk

[Zeeth]

You are very lucky to live in such a place!

[amazondk]

Keith,

I sort of feel that I am lucky to live here. Everyplace has it good and bad sides. But, tropical nature is surely one of the good sides. Although Manaus has grown with uncontrolled urban sprawl and no planning there are some nice little remnants of what was here scattered across the city. Fortunately more attention is started to be given to these spots.

dk

[amazondk]

I just took a trip out to get some material for potting soil mix and took my camera along. I took a few more Euterpe pictures close to my house. A few blocks from my place is where the campus of a local university starts. This area has quite a good size area of land with a remnant of the original vegetation. There are a lot of nice Eutepres here mixed in with Oenocarpus bataua, Socretea, and Mauritias. I drive by here all the time on the way to the supermarket or into other parts of the city, but I normally don´t take my camera nor take the time to stop and capture a few images.

[realarch]

I agree, such beautiful palms. The fronds just sort of quietly shimmer. Here is a photo of E. precatoria in habitat, (Amazon), and my three little babies planted about 18 months ago from 1 gal.

Tim

[amazondk]

More at the university campus, Euterpe olearcea.

[amazondk]

Tim,

I am sure your group of euterpes will look great as it matures. They for sure will do very well in your climate.

dk

[amazondk]

I have ventured into the area a few times entering through one of the holes in the wall. I am sort of reluctant to do so though as one never knows what may appear in a vacant urban lot.

[The Palm Nut]

Hi Don

Great part of the world you live in.

Here is a picture of my edulis.

Cheers

Mike

[amazondk]

Mike,

Those E. edulis look great. I am going to get some seeds and plant some of these as well. I figure they should do ok even if my climate is warmer than their native range.

dk

[Jeff in St Pete]

Don, thanks for all the great Euterpe photos! I love the look of Euterpe mixed with Mauritia.

The E. precatoria you gave me are doing great (I've already planted one), and so are the Mauritia and Oenocarpus. I am going to plant them all together and make an Amazonian garden around our waterfall.

[amazondk]

Jeff,

That is great to hear that the little palms are doing well. I am sure they will all like it there. I would love to see a picture of them.

dk

[Tyrone]

Thanks Don for those wonderful pics.

I too am going to grow as many different Euterpes that I can. E oleracea is out, but maybe the oleracea X edulis will work for me and even the Para Dwarf may have some extra cold tolerance. E edulis grows well here, and the Argentinian E edulis orange crownshaft does too. The other one I need to try is E espiritosantanensis (probably spelt wrong). I will nurse my remaining E precatoria's along. They may be right on the limit for me. Is there a E precatoria from higher altitude somewhere, as for some reason they are called "mountain cabbage palms" ?

Best regards

Tyrone

[epicure3]

Here is a recent pic of my young Euterpe Edulis.

[amazondk]

Thanks Don for those wonderful pics.

I too am going to grow as many different Euterpes that I can. E oleracea is out, but maybe the oleracea X edulis will work for me and even the Para Dwarf may have some extra cold tolerance. E edulis grows well here, and the Argentinian E edulis orange crownshaft does too. The other one I need to try is E espiritosantanensis (probably spelt wrong). I will nurse my remaining E precatoria's along. They may be right on the limit for me. Is there a E precatoria from higher altitude somewhere, as for some reason they are called "mountain cabbage palms" ?

Best regards

Tyrone

Tyrone,

I would think that the Para dwarf, or BRS Para, would be the same as the regular E. olearcea. There is no reason to think they would be more cold tolerant as the variety was developed to be cultivated commercially in the Amazon region. As to E. prectoria from a higher altitude I don´t know. Maybe along the Andes there may be some.

dk

[amazondk]

Epicure,

Your tree seems to be liking it there. It looks great.

dk

[Davidl]

Awesome pics Don as usual.

[Jose Maria]

Amazondk,I liked the Mauritia in the background! I found them in only one place here ...as far as I know.

The Euterpe are very elegant. Here some from a friends garden in my town Ciudad Neily , Costa Rica

The crownshaft has some orange coloring to it....but not enough I think to make it an E.espiritosantensis....

[amazondk]

Jose Maria,

Does the Euterpe precatoria grow naturally in the forest there? There are two kinds of euterpes that grow naturally here, the precatoria and the E. catinga. I think that the catinga has a more orange colored crown shaft. There are some Euterpes in the airport property here that have very orange crownshafts and I do not think that they are clumping palms and look different from the E. olearcea. I am going to see if I can get some pictures. I also have a few Euterpes in my garden here in Manaus that have yellow crown shafts and they are smaller than the normal E. prectaoria. I will post a picture in the morning.

dk

[Kris]

You are very lucky to live in such a place!

Well Said !

[amazondk]

Kris,

Do you have any Euterpes growing there. They would do just fine.

dk

[amazondk]

Jose Maria,

Here are a few pictues of the Euterpe growing at my place. There are two trees together but, they are not clumping trees. When I got them years ago they had two stems in the pot, but I think they were from two seeds. This tree is smaller than the E. precatorias I have and the crown shaft has a golden color whereas the E. precatorias are all green. I think that it probably is the E. catinga, known as açai chumbinho here.

dk

[LauraAnu]

Graet looking palms. Do these need a lot of water and can they be grown in full sun? I would be interested in growing these here if they don't need too much water and can grow in full sun.

Laura

[amazondk]

Laura,

The E. precatoria is a forest palm found in areas that are not flooded. They can tolerate a little flooding but too much. As you can see from the photos they do fine in full sun. I have some little ones growing in full sun on my country place and they are fine. This year has been very dry for our 4 month dry season and I have kept them watered and so far so good. The normal rainfall in areas where the E. precatoria is native runs from 2000 to 3000 mm per year in general with a marked dry season. The E. olearcea comes from wetter conditions and is native to the area of the Amazon river delta But, it seems to do ok in drier conditions. I would say the only thing is to keep them moist and well fed.

dk

[epicure3]

Epicure,

Your tree seems to be liking it there. It looks great.

dk

Thanks. Not as spectacular as the other Euterpe varieties, but this is the only one that grows here. Great for small spaces.

[Jose Maria]

Don,

Euterpe are growing in the wild here in Costa Rica and even on " la Isla del Coco" in the middle of the Pacific.

I never saw them in the wild ,not yet---

Unfortunately for Euterpe they have a very tasty "palmito" or heart of palm, and in the past were harvested for this...until recently now :with the Pejibaye (Bactris) plantations for export and local market, every day of the year one can find fresh heart of palm in the supermarket or farmers-market here.

I don't think these are the E. espiritosntensis, ....let me know what you think.....

The ones in the garden are clumping, a picture of a shoot right out of a stem proves it.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Jeff,

That is great to hear that the little palms are doing well. I am sure they will all like it there. I would love to see a picture of them.

dk

Don, I just took these photos a few minutes ago. These are the little seedlings I got from you almost 11 months ago (the Mauritia seeds you brought me were just starting to germinate at the time).

3 Mauritia flexuosa in the back, 2 Euterpe precatoria in the middle, and Oenocarpus bacaba (I think it was bacaba?) front right and front left.

I'll show you another photo when they are planted next May or June. I want to wait and plant them at the beginning of the rainy season.

[amazondk]

Jose Maria,

Those look like Euterpe olearcea to me. Some of these do have a yellow or orange collered crown shaft as well. If it is clumping I would say that is what it is. The Euterpe espiritosantensis does not clump from what I have read. They call this palmiteiro vermelho, red palmito, as well here in Brazil. I want to get some seeds and plant some on my place. Don´t they use E. olearcea for palm hearts there? The major source of palm hearts in Brazil is now from this palm. You can also mix fruit production with palm heart production. Since the tree clumps when the stems get tall enough to harvest easy you can cut them for palm hearts and let smaller stems grow. The Bactris gasipaes, pupunha here, is also used for palm hearts, but not as widely.

dk

[amazondk]

Jeff,

That is great to see the palms are doing well. It will make it easier to put them in the ground when the rains kick in.

dk

[amazondk]

I took a few more pictures this morning of the Euterpes in my back yard. My place in town is a small lot, 9 x 25 meters and I only have one area where I made a planter with palms. Currently this is being used as a container farm to get plants started and then transfer to the country place. The palms are now getting pretty good sized. I planted most of them about 3 years ago.

dk

[amazondk]

My little palm planter.

dk

[ariscott]

I have 2 E. oleracea in the ground. They do love their water... Now it is doing well after we fixed up the irrigation and they have very regular watering... My Euterpe precatoria from Don are still a bit small. I think I have to feed it more this wet season and hopefully I can plant them out next year. Very pretty!!!

Regards, Ari

[olivier971]

Euterpe oleracea in French Guiana :

[olivier971]

[Jose Maria]

Dan,

Thanks for the information. Here we are selecting to get a Bactris (pejibaye or pupunha)without spines...maybe better to try with Euterpe oleracea instead?

One of the problems encountered was that when the price of palm hearts dropped, people with pejibaye plantations tried to produce fruit instead but forgot that the seeds used for the palmito plantations was from the worst fruit that could not be sold...since palmito quality has no relation to fruit quality.....

Seems interesting to plant some Euterpe oleracea and see what happens.

Olivier,

That is a whole forest of Euterpe! Nice pictures.

Jef,

If they are from the same place as mine they are Oenocarpus mapora. I had transplanted an Euterpe oleracea shoot, but 3 months later it gave up, now I am trying Euterpe seedlings instead , seems to be easier to transplant them.

[amazondk]

Jose Maria,

If you are looking for commercial production that includes fruit and palm hearts you might try getting some Açai BRS Para seeds. You can buy them from Belem, Para already germinated. Açai berries are an interesting crop. At full production you can get over 10 tons per hectare of fruit per year. There must be a market for açai fruit in Costa Rica.

dk

[amazondk]

Olivier,

Great pictures of French Guiana. Did you see Euterpe prectoria there as well? You posted some pictures of an Euterpe native to the islands. Is it possible to get seeds of this species?

dk

[amazondk]

Ari,

When you get your E. prectatoria in the ground don´t forget to send me a picture.

dk

[amazondk]

I drive by this clump of E. olearcea with a nice E. prectoria behind it all the time. It shows pretty well the difference between the two species. This picture was taken today with the sun pretty much as noon so it is very direct equatorial light. You can also see the impact of this years dry season on some of the fronds which are dried out.

dk

[ariscott]

Ari,

When you get your E. prectatoria in the ground don´t forget to send me a picture.

dk

Will do... :)

Regards, Ari