Spineless Astrocaryum - How common?

[Gunnar Hillert]

I went down a little rabbit hole to track down some information on my recently received potted Astrocaryum sp. (Mike Merritt 🙏) that is 10 years old. The mother plant is growing at Floribunda (Hawaii). It is a palm that has not been conclusively identified by neither Andrew Henderson (Stated it might be Astrocaryum aculeatissimum) nor Hari Lorenzi (He did not think it was Astrocaryum aculeatissimum). So there is a bit of mystery from that angle.

However, the bigger mystery is that the mother plant is spiny (as expected) and the sibling from the same seed collection are spiny as well. However, my plant is spineless and I can literally hug it 🤗. It has a few prickly hairs on the leaves but not the typical nasty needles on the trunk. I have attached 3 pictures of my spineless plant as well as 2 pictures of the spiny sibling plant (Mike Merritt).

Therefore, I was wondering: Are there more reports out there of spineless Astrocaryum plants? There are some really vague references on the internet that Astrocaryum might have spineless individuals. Is that more common for certain species or do all species in the genus Astrocaryum have the ability to loose their spine "on occasion"? 

Here on Palmtalk there is one picture of a spineless Astrocaryum alatum in Costa Rica:

Palmpedia has a reference for Astrocaryum vulgare
https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Astrocaryum_vulgare
"Some rare individuals are spineless"

That reference might be from:

https://ecocrop.apps.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/cropView?id=3522
"Some rare individuals are spineless"
Source: Eeckenbrugge and Ferla 2000 (Astrocaryum vulgare)
I was unable to locate the publication by "Eeckenbrugge".

The only truly scientific reference (in Spanish) I could find was in:

Cosechar sin destruir
Aprovechamiento sostenible de palmas colombianas
2018
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279205064_Guerregue_Astrocaryum_standleyanum
in chapter

Güérregue (Astrocaryum standleyanum)
Néstor García

Page 117:

"Una actividad de manejo del güérregue que sería altamente favorable a largo plazo es la
selección de una variedad sin espinas, que facilitaría la cosecha de los cogollos. En las poblaciones naturales del Bajo San Juan hay una proporción muy baja de individuos, cercana al 1 %
del total, que tienen el tronco completamente
desprovisto de espinas [314]. La localización
de estas palmas y su polinización controlada para seleccionar una variedad sin espinas
es una tarea relativamente fácil y altamente
prioritaria."

Translated:

"An activity for managing the güérregue that would be highly favorable in the long term is the selection of a thornless variety, which would facilitate the harvesting of the buds. In the natural populations of Bajo San Juan, there is a very low proportion of individuals—close to 1% of the total—that have a trunk completely devoid of thorns [314]. Locating these palms and conducting controlled pollination to select a thornless variety is a relatively easy and highly prioritized task."

If anyone has any additional information, please share! THANKS!


 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

I think someone on the IPS facebook had posted photos of an Astrocaryum with very few spines. I will try to find it.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

Couldn't find anything on Astrocaryum but found a video of this person who managed to get spineless Bactris setosa palms (Tucum). Related to Astrocaryum obviously.

 

https://youtu.be/5XoT64DW8tI?si=oOQu3-Ls-2idFNHz