Oenocarpus Bataua from seed

[Pedro 65]

Received incredibly Fresh seed of Oenocarpus bataua from RPS in mid December. Here they are 4 months later after being sown straight into their own pot, wow, these are real Fast..Thanks Toby and RPS. Pete

[realarch]

Wow Pete, do those look healthy. I got some from a buddy not too long ago, gave some away and kept one. Need to get it in the ground.

These things get huge and I only have room for one......well I really don't, but I'll fit it in somewhere.

[Pedro 65]

Wow Pete, do those look healthy. I got some from a buddy not too long ago, gave some away and kept one. Need to get it in the ground.

These things get huge and I only have room for one......well I really don't, but I'll fit it in somewhere.

You have plenty of room there Tim. There another "trial" palm here, not sure how they will deal with our winter but one can only gauge by havn a go, I feel they will be fine here and look fwd to them in our landscape.

[Mandrew968]

Nice!

[Kostas]

I grew Oenocarpus bataua when the last time it was available from RPS and found the seedling to be very robust and fast growing and able to handle ''cold'' well but that they cannot stand cool winters for long from my experience. The leafs start to get brown splotches and wither for no reason after about 2 cool months. If only they lasted a couple weeks more,mine would have seen good weather again and it would be a success i think. I would think that once a little bigger,they should be able to handle my winters and yours too even more easily so keep a few aside to grow protected during the first few winters in case the unprotected ones die. I love this species and plan to try it again at some point

[Lowey]

I have had one of these for 15 years and it is just starting to seed, they are one of my favourites, the leaf shape is beautiful when they are young, nothing else is quite the same

[Pedro 65]

I have had one of these for 15 years and it is just starting to seed, they are one of my favourites, the leaf shape is beautiful when they are young, nothing else is quite the same

Beautiful Bruce, I look fwd to seeing it when I head up..Pls post a pic Bruce..

Kosta, yes mate, the half I put in a more protected area under shadecloth and wind protected by a large pot and broms are fine...the half i left in the origional pica little out in the open are finished already after 2 weeks of continuous rain and wet cool nights..happy half are alive, been wanting this Palm for many years..

[aussiearoids]

Always liked this Genus . O mapora is a nice clumping sp. I have finally got some seedlings of .

Must get this one also .

[Cindy Adair]

My own inventory says I have one O. bataua but I have no idea where I planted it (on 7 acres...) Next week I can enjoy a treasure hunt to find and photograph it. Assuming it's still alive... However I should at least be able to find the PVC pipe with an aluminum label. I'm getting an O. mapora in 2 days from Floribunda (to Virginia) and my O. disticha was alive as of 2 months ago. Congrats Pete on your great germination!

[amazondk]

I always enjoy it when a topic on the local palms of my area come up and see people on the other side of the world growing them. This is one of my favorite palms and I have a few small ones planted next to the Mauritia grove on my country place. They are under water right now as the river reached a record high water level this year. These palms like damp and moist conditions and do tolerate annual flooding like the Mauritias do. Here are a couple pictures of some O. bataua growing along a major avenue in Manaus. It is a remnant forest patch in the middle of the city. As some of the pictures show the E. precatoria may grow in close association with the O. bataua. There is a small difference in elevation with the O. bataua growing in a little more moist conditions.

dk

[Pedro 65]

I always enjoy it when a topic on the local palms of my area come up and see people on the other side of the world growing them. This is one of my favorite palms and I have a few small ones planted next to the Mauritia grove on my country place. They are under water right now as the river reached a record high water level this year. These palms like damp and moist conditions and do tolerate annual flooding like the Mauritias do. Here are a couple pictures of some O. bataua growing along a major avenue in Manaus. It is a remnant forest patch in the middle of the city. As some of the pictures show the E. precatoria may grow in close association with the O. bataua. There is a small difference in elevation with the O. bataua growing in a little more moist conditions.

dk

Thanks so much for the Pics Don, all the Oenocarpus pics in the "Brazilian Flora" ( Palms Book) by Harri Lorenzi are "Stunning"..This book has over 1000 pics of Palms from Brazil.Brazil has a huge number of different palm sp..

Beautiful pics of so many Euterpes, including Euterpe edulis with either green, bright yellow or orange crownshafts..No doubt you have this book Don..Thanks again for your wonderful pics.. Pete

[amazondk]

Pete,

I am glad you liked the pictures. I thought it would be interesting to see what these palms look like when in their natural habitat. I do not have that book, but I should get one. I really like the Oenocarpus bacaba. When my wife was a young girl she used to climb the palm trees, O. bataua, O. bacaba, and Euterpe precatoria with a knife in had to cut the fruit off the trees. She told me that the O. bataua, known as pataua here, was more difficult because the fruit clusters were very heavy and she had to go up and down a few times to take a break to cut them off the tree. With the E. precatorias she used to get the tree swinging back and forth and then jump from tree to tree. This at from 5 to 10 meters off the ground. At least she did not break her neck doing so.

dk

[Pedro 65]

Pete,

I am glad you liked the pictures. I thought it would be interesting to see what these palms look like when in their natural habitat. I do not have that book, but I should get one. I really like the Oenocarpus bacaba. When my wife was a young girl she used to climb the palm trees, O. bataua, O. bacaba, and Euterpe precatoria with a knife in had to cut the fruit off the trees. She told me that the O. bataua, known as pataua here, was more difficult because the fruit clusters were very heavy and she had to go up and down a few times to take a break to cut them off the tree. With the E. precatorias she used to get the tree swinging back and forth and then jump from tree to tree. This at from 5 to 10 meters off the ground. At least she did not break her neck doing so.

dk

Wonderful story thanks Don,.Heres a cover pic of the mentioned book..thick hardback book with over 1000 Palm pics and Tons of information on the Palms of Brazil..This book took 15 years to complete..Its Fabulous...

[aussiearoids]

Don , WOW your lovely wife the swinging NINJA Acai harvester ! That would be so scary , but the young usually know no fear .

[brodklop]

Pete, hope these do well for you. I have always wanted some of these.

Thanks for the photos Don. They look fantastic along with the Euterpe and Mauritias

Cheers

Brod

[Alberto]

Pete, it will be nice sight having Oenocarpus and Ceroxylon sp growing together.

[Pedro 65]

Pete, it will be nice sight having Oenocarpus and Ceroxylon sp growing together.

I Feel exactly as you are saying Alberto.

We have a few C Alpinium growing well so I germinated lots of C amazonicum and C Ventricosum to plant in many many areas of our property.. I look fwd to the surviving Oenocarpus Bataua seedlings growing well and getting them inground when our weather is warm and wet again in November..Alberto, I love so many palms of Brazil and the Sth Americas, our collection of Palms from there is growing yearly. In the pic below is Astrocaryum ferrugineum from the Amazon, its single stemmed and this pic is over a year ago..the new leaves now are over 8mtrs long and near 2mtrs wide.

Brod, i wish i put all the seedlings of O bataua in a warmer location, all good, some have survived, I will get more seed again to have more numbers to plant in different locations..

Alberto, heres a few pics of Ceroxylon seedlings and small inground Ceroxylons and the Astrocaryum Ferrugineum..

[Alberto]

Your Ceroxylon seedlings are protected in a cage like mine.I lost a lot of C. seedlings to wild bush mice.What kind of seed predators you have there?

[Pedro 65]

Your Ceroxylon seedlings are protected in a cage like mine.I lost a lot of C. seedlings to wild bush mice.What kind of seed predators you have there?

We have native bush rats that can eat masses of palm seedlings ..

Our two Dogs keeps native rats away now and our carpet Pythons love eating them as well, but i still keep new rarer seedlings in a cage.

Alberto and Don, heres a night shot of Astrocaryum Alatum here in our gardens taken14mths ago , and our Dogs ( female has Dingo in her ) and 1 of our many Pythons..

[Alberto]

Nce white undersides has the Astrocaryum!!! Also nice collors of the Python!

The dog clearly has dingo blood and both don´t look that friendly......or am I wrong???

[Pedro 65]

Nce white undersides has the Astrocaryum!!! Also nice collors of the Python!

The dog clearly has dingo blood and both don´t look that friendly......or am I wrong???

Both Dogs are 'Fantastic with our children" and yes to "strangers' they are "biters", all dogs ive owned have been "great guarders" Heres 2 pics taken 3 minutes ago.

[peachy]

Well Pete as much I adore Oencarpus and would kill to see your garden in person, one look at that snake and all aspirations to take a drive one day have just flown out the window. I don't have much success with seeds from RPS for some reason and then they do germinate they have been know to turn out to be something entirely different to what I thought I was buying. Lately I have been getting seeds from Thailand and had very good germination rates but the species range is quite limited. One day I will find an oencarpus and hope I still have enough space to plant it.

Peachy

[amazondk]

Pete,

That is great that you are a fan of the Astrocaryum family. I have a lot of Astrocaryum aculeatum (tucumã) on my place in the country. The pulp of the fruit is commonly used in sandwiches here or just eaten alone. It is one of my favorite local fruits. The A. ferruineum (mumuru) is a beautiful tree. All of them are pretty spiny though. Here is a picture of a mumuru that I posted a long time ago taken in the forest east of here.

dk

[Alberto]

When trekking through the Serra do Mar mountains of Paraná ,some years ago, I found a big germinated seed of Astrocaryum aculeatissimum, that I grew in a pot for some years. Last I planted it out in my araucaria forest.

[Pedro 65]

Pete,

That is great that you are a fan of the Astrocaryum family. I have a lot of Astrocaryum aculeatum (tucumã) on my place in the country. The pulp of the fruit is commonly used in sandwiches here or just eaten alone. It is one of my favorite local fruits. The A. ferruineum (mumuru) is a beautiful tree. All of them are pretty spiny though. Here is a picture of a mumuru that I posted a long time ago taken in the forest east of here.

dk

Thank You Don for that Pic of the Giant A Ferrugineum ( commomn name Murmuru de terra firme) Cant wait till ours trunks and looks like your pic, glad ours isnt the clumping Murumuru...Our trunking A Alatum ( from Nicaragua,and Panama) is flowering and has fantastic long wide leaves with very very wide leaflets..(pic post 19)...Alberto, as spiny as Astrocaryums are, many are very appealing, Astrocaryum chambira and Astro rodriguesii are 2 that i cant wait to get seed of..Alberto and Don, Im a very keen buyer for seed of the last 2 mentioned if you can find any.. ..All Best Pete

[amazondk]

Pete, from what my wife and her father tell me the A. chambira is found around these parts. It is very similar to the A. aculeatum and is known as tucumã bravo, or wild tucumã. I found this link of some of the palms and their uses in the Manaus area. It is in Portuguese, but pretty easy to understand as it is mostly pictures. It is a pdf document.

http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/plantguides/guide_pdfs/276%20Manaus%20PALMS%2004.pdf

[Cedric]

Bumping this up shamelessly.Im planting out Oenocarpus bataua at the moment. The seed I got sent unusualy for the source had a one hundred % germination rate instead of a 100% dead rate so I've got a nice lot of strong seedlings.I got the seed going in our dry season which was good so was able to (with the usualy small delay called lazy) get them germinated and up ready to plant out in time for the wet.Obviously as I have so many I can experiement a bit with positioning but looking at the wild photos of the palm they look like they could be emergent palms? I wonder if I shouldnt plant the rest under a medium height/shade canopy for best results?

Edited September 13, 2012 by Cedric

[Cedric]

dappled sun?

Edited September 13, 2012 by Cedric

[amazondk]

Cedric,

The O. bataua is an emmergent palm species. It is normally found low spots in the terrain near water courses. I have two small trees that I planted last year near the mauritia grove, which is in a stream bed. They were under water for about 3 months during the high water period this year. They are doing very well. This part of my lot has good soil and a lot of moiture.

dk

[Cindy Adair]

One of the many great things about PalmTalk is being able to access information available nowhere else, straight from growers all over the world 24/7! 

When the roosters next door decided to sound an early alarm at 3 am, as an IPS member I could sign on and quickly search this tree, easily finding photos both in habitat and cultivation.

I read comments from some of you who I now have had the great privilege of meeting. I hope to encounter more of you at the Colombia Biennial!

This palm was a gift from a grower in PR. Thank you!

It did very well in a pot, sheltered from the worst winds during September's hurricane with just a few tattered leaves. Note the tip of my boot for scale.

Below you can now see a hint of the ocean with damage to other trees partially clearing the way.

It is in the foreground near a citrus tree where I will plant my O. bataua today.

Hard to tell from my early morning photos, but it should have partial sun now, but be able to soar above the new lower canopy without blocking the view.

I am glad to hear it grows quickly and likes water too as this area stays rather wet.

On other internet sites I read more about the fruit of this species having a chocolate taste (can anybody verify this?) and possible medicinal uses besides its beauty.

Please share any experience (and photos) of this and other Oenocarpus palms!

 

[Kris]

Here is a link to see some grown up Oenocarpus Bataua palm :

http://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Oenocarpus_bataua

.

 

[Cindy Adair]

Thanks Kris. Quite a nice looking palm I think!

[Kaitibell]

Hello everyone!  Does anyone know where I can find or have any seeds to sell for these Bataua Palms?  I would love to try to grow a couple.  It gets a little cold here, but I would baby it and keep it inside maybe til it gets big.  

I can provide my email if anyone has them. 

Thank you!