Astrocaryum vulgare

[Kai]

I germinated an Astrocaryum vulgare by putting the seed in hot water and after that sawing into the seed coat. Now, about 2 weeks later the first one starts to show the first signs of germination. I'm very excited!

[Kai]

Planted the seed...

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Great upclose photgraphs Kai!  Thanks for sharing them...  What kind of camera did you use?

[MattyB]

Thanks Kai!  Can you describe more about how you sawed into the seed coat?  I'm always interested in how cracking or scratching the endocarp improves germination.

[Kai]

First of all, I used a Soy handycam DCR-HC39E PAL with a littlebit of optical zoom. With the seed very close to the camera, but not so close it would get out of focus.

I sawed the seeds, which have been lying for over2 years on a moist bed of sphagnum mos and never showed any sign of life, with a small metal saw. I was very careful not to reach into the ehm.. endosperm (is that what it's called?). Actually just a deep scratch into the seed coat, which is pretty thick with A. vulgare. It must have been a scratch of about 3 mm thick I guess. Two weeks later I saw the first seed bulching, and a few days later the second. Still about 30 waiting though... Here's a picture that might show the scratch a little beter.

[Kai]

Excuse me.. a Sony handycam.

[amazondk]

This is very intersting as to the germination of these seeds.  This palm grows in disturbed land that is normally burned so it makes sense that germination would be enhanced by heat.  I  know that if you leave the seeds dry and then cut off the outside shell it also enhances germination.  We eat this fruit a lot here in Amazonas.

Here are a few of the palms on my lot.  None of these were planted they just sprouted up like weeds.  Which they sort of are if you look at it that way.

A baby growing in the shade.

A tucumã palm in front of my lot looking out over the Negro River.

The fruit for sale by the ferry boat crossing.

[Kai]

Nice pictures! Thanx! Shouldn't the fruits be orange when you eat them? I got my seeds from Suriname, where I must have eaten kilo's and kilo's of them. I still have a vitamin od... I really love these fruits, it's a shame they don't sale them very much here in Holland. Sometimes I find some at a marketplace in Amsterdam, but only during february and march.

[Kai]

By the way, some people told me that the fruits should be eaten by tapirs in order for the seeds to germinate. But I guess these fires could enhance germination rate too. I know one thing for certain and that is that these seeds need to be tortured!

[MattyB]

Very interesting!  Thanks!  I have 2 seeds that Gileno Machado sent me a couple of years ago.  They're just sitting there but they're still hard as a rock with no signs of rot so I keep them moist.  I suspected that the thick endocarp was the reason they were taking so long.  I'm gonna saw them dude!  Yeah!!!!!!!

[amazondk]

Kai,

As long as the fruit is falling from the tree they are ok to eat.  Most of them sold around here are green turning a golden color.  But, the pulp is very orange.  I love tucumã sandwiches with farmers cheese on french bread.  This is sort of a local breakfast food around here.  As to the fruits being eaten by tapirs I don't really think that is much a factor as there are not all that many tapirs around.  I do think  though that fire is one of the main factors in germination in large numbers.  Of course many animals eat the pulp, cotias, parrots, and others.  

Here are a bunch of the palms in a cow pasture on the highway toward Venezuela.  They are really one of my favorites.  You can see where the spines have been burned off the trunks due to various fires buring the brush to maintain pasture land.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Anyone know how this palm came to aquire it's name?  I can only imagine... ???

[Kai]

You mean "tucuma palm"? I don't know... I also don't know the meaning of the word "tucuma".

Where I got them (Suriname) they call them "awarra". Suriname used to be a Dutch colony and a lot of the words used in the language there are Dutch... Only awarra doesn't mean anything in Dutch. I'll ask my mother in law, she's from Suriname.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Actually Kai, I was referring to "vulgare"...  Maybe the discoverer got a little too close to the spines one too many times and said lots of unrepeatable words?  

[MattyB]

I thought the same thing too about "vulgare" William.  If I remember correctly it means something like "abundant" or "plentiful" or "most common" something like that.  It's in The Encyclopedia.  Anyone remember exactly?

Well I decided to give my old seeds the treatment to see if that helps them pop.

5-26-06 is when I sowed these seeds I got from Gileno.

Here's a look at the seed.  It's got 3 or 4 spots where the fiber patter indicates what looks to be an embryo spot.

So I fed it to my tapir.

[MattyB]

Then it went through a 30 second fire...

So we'll see if that works.

[Kai]

(PiousPalms @ Jan. 16 2008,17:48)

QUOTE

Actually Kai, I was referring to "vulgare"...  Maybe the discoverer got a little too close to the spines one too many times and said lots of unrepeatable words?  

Yes you'r right! I never thought of that! Of coarse! Good thinking. He must have thought it's a nasty palm!

I think it's beatiful though!

[Kai]

Nice pictures Matty B! I'm very curious about the following developments! Please keep us informed!

Greetz,

Kai

[Kai]

BTW, you've got a tapir?  

[amazondk]

Kai,

I think that the tucumã palm we have around here is actually the Astrocaryum aculeatum.  The seeds are rounder than the ones in your picture as well.

dk

[amazondk]

Matt,

What I have heard here is that you can actually cut the outside shell off and germinate the nut inside.  The meat has to be loose from the shell to do this though.  I tried it a while ago and ended up breaking everything.  But, then I was using a pair of pressure grip pliars, so maybe that was the reason.

dk

[Kai]

(amazondk @ Jan. 16 2008,19:50)

QUOTE

Kai,

I think that the tucumã palm we have around here is actually the Astrocaryum aculeatum.  The seeds are rounder than the ones in your picture as well.

dk

That's very interesting! The two palms sure look alike...

With the seeds I got there's a lot of differentiation in roundness though, some are almost spherical and some almost have the shape of a Butia yatay seed. They might have come from different trees of coarse, because I bought several times fruits.

kai

[amazondk]

Kai,

What we get here is a lot of difference in the fruit.  Some have a lot of pulp and others very little.  Some are very good to eat and other are not.  And, the quality of the fruit can vary from year to year.

dk

[Gileno Machado]

Thanks for the information, guys.

Kai, I may as well try your method for germinating those seeds, which I never managed to in the last few years. It may be helpful for Astrocaryum murumuru too, another tough species to sprout. I received these A. vulgare seeds twice from a friend in Belém (Pará State, NE Brazil) and he mentioned they were actually very difficult in fact. I've sent a few to other palm folks (including these for MattyB) but no one has ever reported success in obtaining seedlings...

Well...maybe Don could find us a young Tapir (Anta) to help with these seeds?    I can't wait to visit him in Manaus and taste this advertised tucumã sandwich...

[amazondk]

Gileno,

Please stop by any Sunday, which is best for regional breakfasts.

I really doubt that tapirs are much of a factor in seed germination.  There is not much pulp on the seed to eat and it is so hard that I don't think they probably would swallow the whole fruit.  But, maybe they do.  We have a lot of large rodents here, the cotias and pacas.  They for sure eat them and carry them around.  And, parrots and macaws love them.  Since the trees do best in areas that are burned periodically and are found mostly in secondary forests I think there is a strong human link with the spread of the trees.  It is interesting that in Para and other states the people do not consume the fruit much.  Here in Amazaonas it is a local favorite.  I like ice cream made of tucumã as well.

Here is a bird enjoying the a fruit.  They really chew them up.

dk

[amazondk]

I found this article INPA tucumã germination , which gives a very good description of an test that INPA, (Nationals Institute of Amazonian Studies) in Manaus did no germination.  But, it is in Portuguese.  At least Gileno can use it.  What they did was:

* Soak the fruit for three days, changing water every day, to soften the pulp and then remove it.

* Dry the seeds at an average temperature of 28 C until the it was evident that the inner seed had been released from the shell.

* Then with a piece of rubber around the shell they hit the seed with a hammer cracking the shell.  The seeds were then removed from the shell.

* The seeds were then soaked in water for 6 days, changing water every day.

* The seeds were then placed in covered planting medium, they used sawdust and sand, with the temperature varying from 24 to 38 C.  It took an average of 104 days for the seeds to germinate and an average of 236 days for the leaves.

If left un modified the seeds may take up to 1044 days to germinate.  That surely is long time to wait.

I am going to throw some in a fire to see what happens afterwards.

dk

[Kai]

Thanks for the info Don! I really find all this very interesting! Could you please send the recipe for the tucuma ice cream? As a food-technologist and palmfreak alltogether, I really have to try this! I'll have to try with the awarra fruits of course, but it will do I guess...

Thanks allready!

Kai

[amazondk]

Kai,

I will see if I can find out how they make it.  The ice cream with palm fruits, tucumâ, buriti (mauritia flexuosa), açai (Euterpe) are made by a local company called Glacial.  

dk