Manicaria saccifera

[amazondk]

I frequently take a back street near my office that has quite a bit of vacant or unoccupied land. The other day I spotted a bunch of Manicaria saccifera palms growing in a lot that appears to be abandonded. At least whoever owns it certainly is not using it. There is a little house there, but no sign of someone living there. I got a few seeds to try and germinate. I have not been successful germinating these, but I am going to try again. This place is really right in the city now. A short while ago it was forest. I am gong to put some of these near the Mauritias on my place in the country. As you can see from the pictures they grow in the same place. There are also a lot of Euterpes around.

dk

[amazondk]

The Manicaria has a unique type of bloom and seed pod. The clump of Euterpe olearcea growing nearby impressed me as well.

dk

[Davidl]

Nice pics of the empty lots and I wish I could grow those palms here but it gets to cold in the winter I think. When I buy some land in Ecuador I want to plant allot of more tropical palms and plants. I enjoy all your pics of the country and the natural beauty there.Thanks for posting.

[amazondk]

David,

I think that these are one of the more intersting palms native to our region. This area has recently been incorporated into the city and there still are some nice remnants of what used to be here scattered around. But, I do not know how long they will last. Where are you looking at purchasing land in Ecuardor?

dk

[Gileno Machado]

Hi Don,

I was lucky to germinate one of the Manicaria seeds you sent me a couple years ago and it is doing fine fine under coconut shade. The leaves are still entire, in ooposite to the other seedling I have, germinated from a batch that came from Peru. Is Manicaria a variable species?

Here's Don's seedling:

[Gileno Machado]

and here's the other Manicaria, grown from seed that came from western Amazonic forest:

[amazondk]

Gileno,

That is great that one of those seeds made it. You know I think there are differnces from region to region. At least from what I have heard in Pará the leaves get longer. Do you think that I need to take the outer part of the seed off? That is the rough side. I am going to go get some seeds from the trees in the pictures and try both ways. I was looking for some seedlings but did not find any. They say that this palm, called bussu here is one of the best of all the thatching materials.

dk

[Davidl]

Don it would most likely be close to Guayaquil or closer to the coast. I would like to right now but I have to wait.

[ariscott]

Keep trying, Don... they are definitely worth growing :)

Regards, Ari

[peachy]

What a pretty palm. I often wondered what they looked like. I have only ever seen mediocre pictures of them so it was good to finally see them up close properly. I adore entire leaved palms. The cute little house would renovate well too. Who wants to buy me the place for xmas ? I will have to read up and see if it would survive here.

Peachy

[Moose]

Wow Don. That is a hard one for us here. Thanks for posting the photos!

Ron.

[realarch]

Don, the Euterpe looks so beautiful, I can hardly wait for my babies to grow up.

Peachy, hope you Xmas wish comes true. Wish big, you never know.

Tim

[amazondk]

Peachy,

I think that as Ron says it is even tough to keep them growing in Miami.. But,, who knows.

Tim,

I thought that clump of Euterpes was pretty nice as well. It is amazing some of the places you find nice specimens growing around town. Some of the nicest ones are just in abandonded lots.

dk

[Lowey]

Don,

I was told by Jeff Marcus from floribunda, that Manicaria is a very variable species as Gileno asked, the ones in your pics seem to be the more entire one like mine, wonderful plant once established.