PRINCIPES BALICK: PALM HEART The Palm Heart as a New Commercial Crop from Tropical America MICHAELJ. BAI.ICK 15 Clermonl Road, Wilmington, Delnwnre 19803

A stately species of the genus Euterpe seeded fruits (Fig. 1). Unfortunately, is found throughout the once vast rain these palms contain a sweet tender heart, forests of Costa Rica. 'I'his palm, when and Iwfo~.t,they reach a seed-l~~.odncing mature, reaches the upper limits of the size they are often relle(l to accluire this forest canopy, some 70 feet or more in relatively small amount of edible "hqart the air. Its slender trunk, while only six of palm." In fact, in areas of forest to eight inches thick, supports a splendid much traveled, as soon as these palms crown of fronds, directly under which reach one inch in diameter, they become are produced clusters of small, single- desirable in the eyes of the local inhabi-

-2. Bactris gasipues planted close together for harvesting. 1, Two sources of heart of palm, Euterpe to the left, Bnclris gasipaes at tl~eright. PRINCIPES BALICK: PALM HEART

4. The heart removed. More must be peeled to get to the part used for food.

tants as.a source of food. The campe- San Vito de Java in the mountains of sinos (rural peasant farmers) decapitate western Costa Rica, is attempting the even these small palms to get at the experimental cropping of a substitute slender heart, which at this stage pro- palm heart, the pejibaye or peach palm vides hardly more than a mouthful of (Racrrk gnsil~nc?~).Several rows of this footl. sl)(:(:ic!s Wc!l.c: l)lilll~c(lill ilIl ilLlc1lll)L lo With the increasing gopulatiori stress clemoristrate thal this palm coulcl serve on Costa Ricn's dwindlin~rain forests. 11s it domesticated slil~stit~itefor tht! tl~ereis tloul,t as Lo ~l~is~)LI~III'S i~lrilily /:'ulc!r.l~c!,ll~c:l.el)y ~.ctluci~~~ 1111: ~rl~clitio~~ul to survive these depredations, as each damage to the forest ecology. These new seedling, upon discovery, is usually palms become large enough to cut for soon destroyed. Palm hearts are con- their hearts in two and one-half to foul. tinually collected for commercial can- years from seed, depending on the cli- ning and for export, thereby continuing mate and location, and they yield up to to reduce further the already low popula- three pounds of edible heart, substan- tions. tially more than the Euterpe palm (Figs. Where does the solution lie? Should 2-4). One additional commercial ad- conservationists press for a prohibition vantage to using the pejibaye palm hear! on the importation of this "delicacy," is that it will not discolor after heinp or is there another ar~swer? (:II~,21s (loc!s ~hcwild pro(111c~.The IIUIII- Lns Cruces 'l'ropical Uo~aliicalCi~rJelr ily of the heart is ex cell en^, having a and Field Station, a unit of the Organi- crisp, nutty flavor. The peach palm is zation for l'rol)ical Stuclies, Inc. rrcal. wc:ll ~IIOWIIill Costa Hica as nri iml)or- DIleaves, disregarding the spines One objection sometimes raised to har- in their gusto. vesting this palm is its spiny trunk, For cropping, the plants can be spaced which can be a challenge to the handler. Terminal (hapaxanthic) flowering is hapaxanthic flowering. This is quite close to each other in order to give However, spineless strains of this palm well known in the lepidocaryoid palms; Ijlorrorops calicarpn (Griff. ) Mart. maximum yield. At Las Cruces the are being propagated, which should re- all species of Korthalsia, Plectoconzin, acaulescent forest undergrowth 1 trees were spaced .75 by 2.0 meters, move this difficultv. Plectocomiopsis, Myrialepis, Ancistro- highly characteristic of forest horde while in large-scale plantings at the Tur- As experimental cropping and the first phyllum, Oncocalamus, Eleiodoxa, and rivulets in nonswampy lowland and rialba Tropical Agricultural Research few commercial operations have proved Eugeissorm, and apparently all species dipterocarp forest in the Malay Pt and Training Center, 2,200 trees were worthwhile. what is now needed is a of Raphia, have this particular method sula; in such a habitat it forms thicl planted per hectare (2.47 acres), and large-scale growing program promoted of flowering- in which axes develop often in association with Calanzus spaced 3 by 1.5 meters (Activities at by the government and with the coopera- through a vegetative phase and then pass taneus Griff. It also grows in N Turridba l(3) : 4, April-June 1973, Tur- tion of commercial packaging com- into a flowering phase which terminates Sumatra in a small area of forest in rialba, Costa Rica). Conclusions drawn panies. Heart of palm has the potential the -growth of those axes. In Metroxrlon Langkat Nature Reserve which is from the Las Cruces experiment indicate for being an important agricultural all species but one flower hapaxanthi- markable for the large number of pl that a little further spacing than was crop in tropical America. cally; M. amicarum (H. Wendl.) Becc., of Malayan distribution apparently the exception, has pleonanthic flowering, found elsewhere in Sumatra (e.g. ( the inflorescences being produced in the mus castaneus, C. insignis Griff., axils of the leaves until the axis dies of Johannesteijs~nann~innltifrons (Rei carry a hopeful message to those of us injury or old age. That the two ef- f. et Zoll.) H. E. Moore). who have watched an otherwise fine fectively and markedly different methods Dacrnonoro])~~nlir:~r~)a protl ucc:s : specimen palm apparently succumb to of flowering can occur in the same genus podially suckering axes which shock or disease when transplanted. The has stimulated much speculation as to scarcely more than 30 cm. tall and Plroclnix sylvc~risillr~strnted \V;IS I>lnn~ed ~VIIi(,l~ rlow(*ri~~~ l)ro(~*ss is 1 II,~III~Iivv ;III~ I:II.~(! I(::IV(!S (I~I(!II 3 5 111. I;III wi111 I, 111l.ee years ago it1 prime co~~tlilional which advanced. Holttum (1955), Cor- brown sheaths having conspic1 the Polynesian Hotel, Walt Disney ner (1966), Hall6 and Oldeman (1970), oblique combs of pale brown sp World. After a period of some months, and Dransfield (1970) favour the idea The pinnae are regular, fine, and cler signs of trouble were perceived in the that hapaxanthic flowering is basic crowded, and sometimes the leaf 1 older leaves. They had gradually de- whereas Moore (1969), at least in in a short vestigial cirrus. A clump teriorated into the forlorn terminal at Metroxylon, and Moore and Uhl (1973), contain six or more axes of varying a right angle to the trunk. A new bud, regard it as derived. Tomlinson and An axis of D. calicarpa in flower h to our surprise, had in the meantime Moore (1968) regard the whole argu- marvellous appearance; a large k pushed out alongside the original and ment concerning which is primitive, kerry of flowers is found almos gives promise of ultimately assuming a hapaxanthy or pleonanthy, as being re- ground level among the leaf bases.

normal aspect. dundant. Like many evolutionary. prob-. flowering axis consists of very crov If nothing else, the message may be lems there are good arguments difficult internodes with short leaves endin, not to be too hasty in consigning Lo the to prove in favour of both views. What- vestigal cirri and undulate, partiall) ~rave~ardthe apparent transldan t casu- ever the real answer mav. be.. the situa- veloped leaflets. These leaves hec alty. tion is certainly an interesting one and smaller ant1 smaller distally. In the it may be of importance to record the of them are the inflorescences n- MORGANEVANS occurrence of hapaxanthy in a genus likewise decrease in size distally I The freak behavior of the palm de- Director, Landscape Architecture hitherto thought to be entirely pleo- the most distal ones are minute ant1 picted in the accompanying photograph WED Enterprises nanthic. tain no flowers. In all, about 25 would not make the subject a candidate 1.4.01 Flower Street Of the 115 species of Daen~onorops, florescences are produced from for a beauty prize. It does, however, Glendale, California 91201 at least one species appears to have axis, not apparently reaching ant1