Wild pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes Kunth var. chichagui) in Southeastern Amazonia

Abstract

The geographical distribution and morpho-genetic variation of wild and domesticated populations of a crop species are essential information for identifying a center of origin. The pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes Kunth) is the only domesticated neotropical palm, whose starchy-oily fruits are subsistence products and whose heart-of-palm is an expanding agribusiness. The origin of pejibaye is unresolved, but probably will be found in the distribution of type 1 B. gasipaes var. chichagui in southwestern Amazonia. A new area of occurrence of this type is reported around São Felix do Xingu, Pará, Brazil, 52°41' W 6°34' S, about 600 km northeast of the eastern-most known population, in central Mato Grosso, Brazil. The plants of this population are slightly less robust than other type 1 plants and have small fruit bunches (60-70 fruit), small fruit (0.45 g and 10 by 9 mm) and seed (0.23 g and 6.5 by 7.4 mm), all smaller than previous descriptions. Although this find is disjunct from earlier reports, it is unlikely that other populations are absent between it and central Mato Grosso, expanding type 1 var. chichagui's distribution by 30% and redefining it as a typical element of the transition between humid and semi-humid forests across southern Amazonia, rather than an Andean element expanding into the region.

Peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) in tropical Latin America: implications for biodiversity conservation, natural resource management and human nutrition

“…Wild peach palm trees are found in disturbed ecosystems, on river banks and in primary forest gaps (Mora-Urpí et al 1997). They often occur in isolation or at low densities (Mora-Urpí et al 1997;Da Silva and Clement 2005). Though no definitive studies have been conducted on seed dispersal of peach palm, it is probably restricted locally to dispersal by birds and seed-gathering mammals, though seed may occasionally be dispersed by water, potentially over greater distances (Mora-Urpí et al 1997;Clement et al 2009).…”

Las palmeras de América del Sur: diversidad, distribución e historia evolutiva

“…Las palmeras más características de estos bosques son Attalea eichleri, A. speciosa, Acrocomia aculeata, Bactris gasipaes var. chichagui y S. vermicularis (Henderson 1995, Noblick 2004b, Silva & Clement 2005. En varias partes se observan extensas formaciones dominadas por Attalea speciosa (zona dos cocais en Maranhão, Sampaio 1933), de origen probablemente secundario (Aubreville, 1961;Anderson et al, 1991).…”

Identification and quantification of carotenoids by HPLC-DAD during the process of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes H.B.K.) flour

“…The high starch and fat contents mean that the fruit also has a high energetic value (Clement, Weber, Van Leeuwen, Astorga, Cole & Arguello, 2004;Da Silva & Clement, 2005;Leterme, García, Londoño, Rojas, Buldgen, & Souffrant, 2005). For this study, the most important characteristic of peach-palm fruit lies in its contributions of vitamin A, the deficiency of which is prevalent in Latin American populations (Dibari, 1997).…”