PALM S Merritt: Ceroxylon in Peru Vol. 58(3) 2014 The Ceroxylon MICHAEL L. M ERRITT Trip in P.O. Box 492463 Kea’au, Hawai’i 96749 Northern USA Peru 1. The forest of Ceroxylon quindiuense at Ocol. When IPS board members and other guests dispersed following the 2013 interim board meeting at the Inkaterra Ecolodge near Puerto Maldonado in southeastern Peru, most boarded planes for Lima. But for a small subgroup including myself, Lima was just a stop on the way to the trailhead for another palm adventure, this one to see the famous wax palms of northern Peru. Our journey was to see the Ocol Forest, a forest many years, but now resides in Lima, where he of Ceroxylon palms (Fig. 1) on the upper slopes is an administrator at the Catholic University of the Andes Mountains. The leader of the tour in that city. The plane landed at the airport in was IPS Board member Fernando (“Pacho”) Tarapoto, a city of over 100,000 persons in the Roca Alcazar, who has worked in the region for Department of San Martin, at an elevation of PALMS 58(3): 143 –150 143 PALM S Merritt: Ceroxylon in Peru Vol. 58(3) 2014 2. Our tranportation across Huallaga River. about 350 m (1200 ft.) in the western foothills From the airport, we were transported to of the Andes. Located 6.5° of latitude below the Puerto Palmeras, a resort and staging ground Equator, Tarapoto is also known as the “City for ecotourism in the area, although the many of Palms” after a native palm species ( taraputus ) buildings of the resort seemed to be centered found in abundance in the nearby lagoon about the huge swimming pool with an (now replaced by city streets) by the early outside bar, hardly suggesting the rigors of Spanish settlers in the 1780s. Pacho thought ecotourism. In contrast to the lowland heat of the taraputus was either Mauritia flexuosa or Inkaterra (12.5° of latitude below the Equator), Dictyocaryum lamarckianum . the prevailing temperature of the Andean 3. Participants in the Ceroxylon adventure, left to right: Soejatmi Dransfield, Kathleen Grant and Tom Jackson, John Dransfield, David Tanswell, Jeffry and Christine Brusseau, Alexander, Lauri and Toby Spanner and Pacho. 144 PALM S Merritt: Ceroxylon in Peru Vol. 58(3) 2014 foothills was relatively comfortable. However, the top of a hill overlooking the Lago Lindo our evening arrival did not permit palm resort, which, at an elevation of 700 meters exploration, and early in the morning we left (2300 feet), also serves as headquarters for an for our next destination, Lago Lindo, a resort ecological reserve. The walk down the hillside near the town of Sauce. to the resort is well known and is featured in much of the online advertising for local resort We traveled south of Tarapoto on a well-paved facilities. Figure 5 from along the trail shows highway, then traveled east on a minor road a palm typical of the area, Oenocarpus mapora . to the bank of the Huallaga River. Here a ferry At one point, we came across some artisans – actually a raft propelled by several big sculpting statues of men of importance in outboard motors – carried cars and passengers Peruvian history from the underlying soft across the broad and fast-flowing river (Fig. 2). sandstone, including José de San Martín, the After waiting an hour or so, it was our turn. nation’s founder. We just beat the rain to the As we were propelled across the river, we main building. Soon, we were served lunch at gathered for a group picture (Fig. 3) in the the lakeside boathouse. Across the lake were front of the ferry (the missing member of the large groups of Attalea palms, which I assumed group, yours truly, is behind the camera). The were A. butyracea , though some local botanists apparently primitive character of the referred to them as A. phalerata . transportation was deceptive, however. Government agencies have offered to fund Each member or family of our group was construction of a bridge, but the local assigned a cabin with a front deck, table and population has blocked it, fearing that chairs and a hammock in a picturesque development would spoil the character of their tropical hillside setting overlooking the lake. region and bring in too many visitors. Outside my cabin, on very high ground, was Once across the Huallaga, we resumed our bus a very nice-looking young specimen of journey, climbing in elevation. We began to see Mauritia flexuosa . After settling in, we gathered many specimens of a robust Syagrus species in the main building to begin a guided tour of (Fig. 4). Toby Spanner later identified the the lakeside gardens. We saw more Attalea sp., species as S. sancona on the basis of the number a tall spineless form of Bactris gasipaes , and of rachillae. We disembarked from the bus at several smaller Bactris spp. by the side of the 4 (left). Syagrus cf. sancona . 5 (right). Oenocarpus mapora . 145 PALM S Merritt: Ceroxylon in Peru Vol. 58(3) 2014 6. Mauritiella armata . path. One of the latter was most probably B. region: Mauritiella armata (Fig. 6), Oenocarpus brongniartii . One spectacular flowering non- mapora and Oenocarpus bataua (Fig. 7). We were palm was a tangarana (Triplaris sangarana ). never close to the last species, nor to the Upon our return, we could participate in Dictyocaryum lamarckianum that we could see feeding the tropical birds, such as macaws. A in the distance on hillside ridges as we climbed pet toucan proved to be very aggressive in its steadily into the mountains. Finally, we saw pursuit of food. As it turned dark, we gathered our first Ceroxylon , tall palms with very in the lobby for what became the tour drink straight, ringed trunks, often with a white of choice, the pisco sour (like a whiskey sour, waxy surface between the rings. The tree but made with the local pisco alcohol derived shown in Fig. 8 was either C. echinulatum or from fermented grapes). Our cabins had C. quindiuense . Both species have pendulous electricity from 6 to 10 p.m. only and no hot leaflets. Ceroxylon quindiuense is supposed to water, so we turned in early after dinner for an be a taller, more massive tree (in fact, it is the early morning cold shower and departure from world’s tallest palm, reaching 60 m [200 ft.] in this beautiful place, where I would have liked height). Toby Spanner, who, with Pacho, was to stay for a while longer. the most knowledgeable in our group about the genus Ceroxylon , noted that it was difficult We were on our way to Pomacochas, the to distinguish between the two species when location of the Puerto Pumas resort, normally viewing an isolated tree in the field. closed except for special groups. They opened for our visit with a staff of two employees. This Ceroxylon palms are dioecious. There are 12 would be our staging area for treks during the species currently recognized, of which we saw remainder of the tour. We stopped for lunch, four, or probably five, during our tour. still in the lowlands, at an open air restaurant Henderson et al. (1995) listed C. vogelianum as next to a wetland with a forest of Mauritia the only Ceroxylon species present in northern flexuosa . The dead fronds hanging down had Peru, but they were probably working with an intriguing appearance. Later, alongside the incomplete information from a region that road, we saw several large palms typical of the was then lawless and dangerous to enter. Vast 146 PALM S Merritt: Ceroxylon in Peru Vol. 58(3) 2014 7 (left). The distinctive crown of Oenocarpus bataua . 8 (right). A species of Ceroxylon . Ceroxylon forests once spread across the Ceroxylon palms are subject to other threats as Andean foothills, but most have been lost to well. Collection of fronds from several clearing for agriculture. Henderson et al. (1991) varieties, including C. quindiuense , for Palm stated that 90 percent of the Andean forests Sunday observances have substantially had been eradicated. imperiled populations, and the governments 9. Ceroxylon parvifrons , a high-elevation species. 147 PALM S Merritt: Ceroxylon in Peru Vol. 58(3) 2014 10. Ceroxylon peruvianum . of several countries are now trying to suppress smooth skin, but most show a warty pattern this practice. Frequently, some Ceroxylon that is highly characteristic of individual quindiuense are left intact during clearing of species and “is a useful taxonomic character to land for pastures. However, removal of the recognize species,” according to a recently plant cover around the palms and movement published monograph on the genus (Sanin & of cattle around them, compacts the soil about Galeano 2011). The seeds are round, brown or the roots, and the palms decline, the trunk black, smooth, and 1.0–2.0 cm (0.4–0.8 in.) in becoming very thin at the top before death diameter. Germination is adjacent-ligular and occurs. We observed this unfortunate result in the eophyll is entire. After our visit to the Ocol the pastures on the edges of the Ocol forest. forest, Toby initiated discussions with local Although the various Ceroxylon species are conservationists about supplying Ceroxylon adapted to specific ranges of altitude in their seeds for his palm seed business and remained natural environment, altitude is not an for several additional days of reconnaissance obstacle to the growing of Ceroxylon , as Pacho in the area, so palm hobbyists may find these has been successful in growing four species ( C. seeds available in the near future. alpinum , C. amazonicum , C. ventricosum and C.