PALM S Noblick: Palms in Vol. 56(3) 2012 Exploring LARRY R. N OBLICK for Palms Montgomery Botanical Center 11901 Old Cutler Road Miami, FL 33156 USA in French [email protected] Guiana

In this article, I describe a recent palm-hunting trip to French Guiana.

Except for the coastal region, most of French a great place to start my trip. Just behind their Guiana is largely uninhabited and in its natural lodging is a very nice nearly primary forest, state (Fig. 1), in spite of the fact that it was with a well marked forest trail and several colonized by the French and other Europeans species of palms including as early as 1624. Most of its estimated 400,000 paramaca, A. sciophilum, A. vulgare, Attalea residents live in the major coastal cities, like maripa, Bactris campestris, B. rhaphidacantha, Cayenne with a population of about 250,000. Euterpe oleracea, Mauritia flexuosa, According to botanical studies done over the bacaba and Syagrus inajai . years, there are about 73 species of palms. Armed with information from Jean-Jacques de French Guiana is about the size of Maine with Granville, who has worked in Guiana since numerous low mountains, inselbergs (isolated, the 1970s, Joep’s organizational skills and island-like, granitic outcrops) and an excellent knowledge of trails and the help of abundance of rivers and creeks. Much of the Pierre-Olivier Albano and members of the local land has still not been explored botanically palm society, I was able to locate and see many due to its inaccessibility. Because of the different species. Joep helped me to explore potential for new discoveries and the ease of the Kaw mountains, especially the Tresor Trail obtaining permits to collect, this would seem and Preserve (which years ago he helped the perfect place for botanists to flock to, design and build) and the botanically well- except that it is part of the European Union explored Piste de St. Elie area. With the help and its currency is the Euro making everything of the palm society, I was able to explore near expensive when compared with neighboring Petit Saut, Bagne de Annamites, Savane Roche South American countries. Nevertheless the de la Virginie (an inselberg) and many other opportunity to explore a new part of South areas close to these. Joep and I also took a short America and to collect new species attracted flight into central French Guiana to explore me in April and May 2012. For three weeks the primary forests surrounding the isolated during the height of the rainy and fruiting village of Saül, once a thriving gold mining season, I explored French Guiana. community. Recommendations from Dr. Scott Mori, a New French Guiana palms York Botanical Garden botanist, who has worked there since the 1980s, led me to stay A major portion of the French Guiana palm at a small place outside Cayenne called the flora is well armed. Great care must be taken Emerald Jungle Village run by Dutch-born to collect the spiny genera of Astrocaryum, Johannes (Joep) Moonen and his wife, Bactris and Desmoncus . Even Mauritiella and Myrajka, from , and it proved to be (Fig. 2) have their own armature.

116 PALMS 56(3): 116 –130 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

1. The vast, undisturbed rain forests of central French Guiana near Saül.

Since on this trip most of my collecting was in the middle. I arrived too late for fresh done near the coast, I encountered only a few flowers and too early for mature fruit. It is not of the several Geonoma species found in French surprising why there is so little known about Guiana, such as G. stricta, G. baculifera and G. the acaulescent Attalea species. Although oldemanii . Many smaller Bactris species individuals can be found in abundance in the commonly fill the Geonoma niche in the forest forest understory and have the potential of understory, such as Bactris aubletiana, B. producing both male and female in- gastoniana and B. simplicifrons. florescences, very few produce flowers or have any indications that they ever have flowered. French Guiana has only two species in the There just is not enough sunshine available in genus Syagrus . The most common is a single, the forest understory to induce flowering. thin-trunked palm of rather unimpressive When flowers do occur, more than 90% are stature called Syagrus inajai. The other species, males (great for identification, but bad for seed S. stratincola , is a rarely seen clustering palm collecting). Female inflorescences are a rare of isolated inselbergs in the interior. It is item indeed, because of their high energy cost difficult to mistake it for anything else because and they probably need an opening in the of its unusual, globose fruits with their grooved forest canopy to be successful. Encountering exterior (Fig. 3). mature fruit is rarer still, but when they do Of particular interest to me on this trip were have fruits, they usually produce a lot. the species of Attalea . One of the most commonly seen is the , which Some of these acaulescent Attalea belonged formerly belonged in its own genus originally to the genus Orbignya and all of the Maximiliana with male flowers possessing others belong to the former Scheelea genus. stamens that far exceed its petals. Glassman The Orbignya group is characterized by having described four new acaulescent Attalea all of the male flowers attached to one side of (Scheelea ) species, but he may have been a bit the inflorescence branches (rachillae) and the too eager based on so few specimens. By flowers have spoon-shaped (spatulate) petals. contrast, Andrew Henderson may have been a Not enough material has been collected yet to bit too quick to synonomize everything into determine if there is just one species ( Attalea one species. The truth is probably somewhere microcarpa ) as proposed by Henderson

117 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

(personal comm.) or if there are two, one with male flowers in the few specimens that he had thin rachillae and smaller flowers which was available to him. misnamed Attalea polysticha because someone The Tresor Preserve mistakenly thought that the flowers were attached all the way around the rachillae The Tresor Preserve is located in the Kaw (which they are not) and A. sargotii , which mountains just east of Cayenne. The trail is grows on well drained soils and has much well marked and maintained, but it does not thicker rachillae with much larger, unilaterally contain a great diversity of palm species. Along attached flowers. The Scheelea group of Attalea this trail we saw the trunkless Astrocaryum have more cylindrical petals that are slightly paramaca and thin trunked A. gynacanthum . tapered at both ends and the stamens are Both have fruits that split open at the tip and smaller or equal to the petals and is the most peel back displaying a yellow-coated ball (seed) problematic group to understand. Although center, begging for some creature to carry it off Henderson has placed them all in Attalea (Front Cover). There is also the menacing guianensis (Henderson, personal comm.), there Astrocaryum sciophilum , whose slow steady are some differences I observed in the field in growth makes it a common palm in many terms of their preference of habitat. Some grow well-drained forested sites along with on well-drained mountain forest slopes and occasional Bactris gastoniana . Along the trail never extend their populations into the we also encountered an acaulescent Attalea adjacent wetter depressions close to the creeks with old fruit but which could not be and streams. Others grow only in poorly identified for lack of male flowers. Close by, at drained swamp forests or on the flood plains the trail of the Piste de Caiman, there were of creeks and streams and never grow up onto more sterile acaulescent Attalea on a well- the adjacent well-drained forest slopes. That drained site. would seem to indicate that there probably is Piste de St. Elie more than one species, but perhaps fewer than the four that Glassman proposed based on his Piste means track or road and there are many meticulously collected measurements of the roads that say that they go to places that they length of the male rachillae and size of the do not, and the Piste de St. Elie does not go to

2. The spines on the stilt of .

118 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

3. The longitudinally grooved exterior of Syagrus statincola fruits.

St. Elie. However, it is the site of a well- of a wet savanna on our return, and I was able established trail and camp that have been used to collect seed from several mother and by the botanists from the Herbier de Guyane make a spiny voucher. for many years. Sterile, acaulescent Attalea on Asterogyne guianensis well-drained soils were seen here. The trail also had a number of other interesting palms, like My first day out with Pierre Olivier Albano single stemmed species of Oenocarpus, O. and the Ti-Palm society’s palm enthusiasts was bataua and O. bacaba (Fig. 4) and a Geonoma educational. Although Asterogyne guianensis with strap shaped leaves, G. oldemanii . There (Fig. 6) has been thought to be a very rare palm was also Bactris rhaphidacantha, B. aubletiana, and has fallen under the legal protection of the B. simplicifrons and Astrocaryum sciophilum . French Government, it has been found to be Although no palm collections could be made not so rare by the local palm society. I was led at the Piste de St. Elie, we found mature orange down a well-drained slope onto a large flood fruiting (Fig. 5) at the edge plain where there was a very large and healthy

119 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

4. The horse-tail-like inflorescence of near the Piste de St. Elie. population of the species, which the members slopes, we passed Geonoma maxima, Bactris have been carefully monitoring for several aubletiana, B. rhapidacantha, B. gastoniana, months. The palm appears to grow on a soggy Oenocarpus bataua and several acaulescent flood plain. On the adjacent or surrounding Attalea (Scheelea ) on well drained soils with

120 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012 several producing immature fruit at this time. The white sands of Sinnamary We then continued farther west to Route de Petit Saut (little rapids road) and there on The soils close to Sinnamary are a coarse- another flood plain near Crique de Eau we saw grained white to gray sand probably from Bactris elegans (Fig. 7), the rare B. nancibaensis decomposing granite, and here we found (Fig. 8), B. acanthocarpoides, B. acanthocarpa Attalea (Orbignya sagotii- type) and some very var. exscapa (= B. humilis ), B. gastoniana, B. healthy Bactris gastoniana, B. oligocarpa, B. oligocarpa, B. aubletiana, Oenocarpus bataua and aubletiana and my personal favorite, Bactris more acaulescent Attalea (Scheelea ). constanciae , with its red, spiky fruits that

5. The attractive, orange-fruited but dangerously spiny Astrocaryum vulgare .

121 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

6 (top). Asterogyne guianensis growing in habitat in a swampy depression . 7 (bottom). The elegant leaves and fruits of Bactris elegans .

122 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

8. The rare, endemic Bactris nancibaensis with its entire bifid leaves. resemble “koosh balls” or rambutans (Fig. 9). the last day I hiked with dry feet in French It is a very attractive but rather odd palm fruit. Guiana. Palms seen along this trail were Desmoncus polyacanthos , Syagrus inajai, Trail to le Bagne des Annamites Oenocarpus bataua, Bactris rhaphidacantha, B. The trail to Bagne de Annamites (Fig. 10) acanthocarpa var. exscapa, B. nancibaensis, B. initially crosses a swamp forest with an aubletiana, Astrocaryum paramaca, A. sciophilum abundance of acaulescent Attalea (Scheelea ) and Geonoma deversa . Pierre Olivier claims that (Fig. 11). It rained for most of the day he has recorded as many as 18 palm species producing flooded trails and streams. This was along this trail.

123 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

9. The red, spiky fruits of Bactris constanciae .

Crique de Margarite as A. paramaca (Front Cover) and A. gynacanthum . We also stopped at a forest near Near the Crique de Margarite, I visited the kilometer marker 52, where we saw Geonoma palm collection of Andres Billot. It was a fine baculifera, G. oldemanii and G. stricta . collection; however, the palm that most interested me was a native acaulescent Attalea We continued on to kilometer marker 118 on (Scheelea ) that he had cleared around and that the RN2 to the trailhead that would lead us was now producing female infructescences. In towards the inselberg. I had slowly walked the adjacent well-drained forest, I found the about the first half of this trail on an earlier trip same species of Attalea with old male with Joep, and we had seen Bactris inflorescences. Initially, I thought that the rhapidacantha, B. gastoniana, B. paramaca, unusually small male flowers (<3 mm) seen in Manicaria saccifera and Syagus inajai . We also the female inflorescence (Fig. 12) were unique saw a large group of flowerless acaulescent to the female inflorescence, but after seeing Attalea on well-drained soils. and measuring those in the old male On this trip, we went a lot farther passing a inflorescences, I discovered that the population of Geonoma stricta and Astrocaryum measurements were the same. Interestingly, rodrigesii , and just before we reached the this palm does not match up with anything inselberg, we came across a healthy population that Glassman described. of Syagrus inajai, which I collected . The trail Savane Roche de la Virginie (the inselberg) continued up a steep incline to the inselberg, and as it began to rain, we finally descended The next day we drove along Route Nacional to the inselberg’s open rock surface (Fig. 14) 2 (RN2) east towards a granitic rock outcrop only to have to climb up a wet, steep, called Savane Roche de la Virginie, also known treacherously slippery (algae-covered) rock face as an inselberg. Along the RN2, Pierre Olivier to reach the spot where we would have lunch. and his palm enthusiast friends pointed out a The inselberg was interesting but was not rich fast growing Astrocaryum rodriguesii (Fig. 13). It with palms. There were many species of displays its fruit in the same attractive fashion orchids, aroids, Melastomataceae, Clusiaceae,

124 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

10 (top). Ruins of the former prison at Bagne de les Annamites. 11 (bottom). The swamp-loving acaulescent Attalea (Scheelea ) of Bagne de les Annamites with L. Noblick.

125 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

12. Female inflorescence of an acaulescent Attalea (Scheelea ) with small (<3 mm) male flowers. etc. After spending some time exploring the central French Guiana (Fig. 1). To and from inselberg, we all returned to the cars soaked in Saül there are no roads. The muddy airstrip is rain and sweat. its only physical connection to the outside world, other than the free public internet. At Saül least three major trails can be explored near the The next day I flew with Joep to Saül and into village, and there are no paved roads. After all the well preserved, seemingly endless forests of the rain, the trails, roads and airstrip were

126 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

13. The fast-growing and horribly spiny Astrocaryum rodriguesii . muddy. All terrain vehicles (ATVs) are one was owned by the fire department. One apparently the vehicle of choice, as we saw fireman helped the single baggage handler at several people using them to meet family the airport to load passengers’ luggage into members at the airstrip. ATVs are indeed the the truck and transport it to the city hall, along most practical way of getting around Saül, and with the few passengers lucky enough to find I thought that it would be the only vehicle we space in his truck. The truck took its time in would see. However, as we waited at the negotiating the slippery road to Saül from the airstrip, we were met by a bright red pickup airstrip. We picked up our backpacks at the truck, one of the few non-ATVs in town. This city hall and hiked a short distance to our

127 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012

14. The Savane Roche de la Virginie inselberg with its dangerously slippery granite slopes. lodging, Les Carbets du Bord. Our sleeping of Syagrus inajai on both sides of the road that quarters were open to the elements, and the was about 7 km from Saül on the road to Eau building where we stayed also had a small Claire and we found the population just as he kitchen, large dining area with several picnic had described it, but it was well past flowering tables for eating and preparing meals (or and fruiting. Only a few old seed were found pressing plants). The sleeping area was located from this population that we labored so hard on a higher level and included two foldout to get to. Although about 32 species of palm beds with mosquito netting but was mainly have been recorded from the forests designed for hanging hammocks. In the surrounding Saül (Mori, 1997), this particular evening, the electric lights were run from track was not that species rich. Along the track batteries, which were recharged daily by solar we saw Astrocaryum gynacanthum, Bactris panels. We were pleasantly surprised to learn paramaca, B. oligocarpa, B. acanthocarpa var. that they even had warm water (solar-heated) exscapa , Oenocarpus bacapa, O. bataua and showers. We made an advanced reservation Socratea exorrhiza . The gently sloping trail was with a restaurant in town, which was required not difficult, but its wet, sticky, and often slick since we would be their only guests. It did not clay surface offered many opportunities to slip take us long to familiarize ourselves with the and fall. We took our time walking towards town, which included the city hall, the post Eau Claire, but the return was a non-stop two office, the church, the fire station, and the and half hour march. Unfortunately, the National Park office. bottoms of my feet blistered from sliding around inside my wet hiking shoes. We saw Hike to Eau Claire (Clear Water) spectacular trees along the way, and I found an The next day, we set out for Eau Claire, the impressive Socratea exorrhiza (Fig. 15) from weather was good for most of the day, but which I gathered seed. Unfortunately, I could ended in a torrential downpour, which not voucher such a magnificent specimen as occurred exactly when I was collecting and the spiny cone (Fig. 2) was over 2 meters measuring a spiny Astrocaryum . Jean-Jacque de high and positioning the stem too far from Granville had told us of a healthy population the ground to reach and climb with the

128 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012 equipment that I carried. That evening, we rate, I used the extra time to press the palm arrived in town late. We were unable to make material that I had collected that day. The next a reservation at the restaurant and had to day, we prepared to leave on the plane, rested subsist on crackers, bread and cookies. At any up from our hike and had another leisurely

15. A magnificent fruiting Socratea exorrhiza between Saül and Eau Claire in central French Guiana.

129 PALM S Noblick: Palms in French Guiana Vol. 56(3) 2012 walk around town. We saw the original Kilometer marker 22 on National Route 2 is bulldozer that they had flown into Saül during just such a site. It is the type locality for Attalea the early days to make the airstrip and town’s degranvillei that Glassman had originally roads. I learned that they airlifted the bulldozer described as a Scheelea . Its habitat is not in a few pieces at a time and then reassembled “mountain forest” as reported by Glassman it there. (1999) but rather a poorly drained, swamp forest. It is the same palm and habitat as seen Gallion at Bagne des Annamites and Gallion. Therefore During my last week, I left early one morning the mysterious swamp forest loving palm is to accompany Ludovic, a botanist, and his Attalea degranvillei . zoologist colleague Kevin to another large In the very near future, we hope to be able to population of acaulescent Attalea . They had determine the correct name for the acaulescent discovered this large Attalea population in the Attalea (Scheelea ) of well-drained soils. It may process of working on an environmental be Attalea guianensis , as Henderson has impact study. The first part of the trip was proposed, or several species. I may be able to down what looked like a flooded logging road answer that question after my next trip to with logs and tree debris still jammed together French Guiana in which I shall attempt to visit along the roadside. It was a balancing act to some of the other less accessible Attalea type climb over all of the debris and not fall into localities. the muddy water, but luckily that only lasted for the first kilometer, then we crossed a Acknowedgments flooded savanna with Bactris campestris. We I would like to thank all those who offered proceeded down a flooded savanna road with advice or help in organizing this collecting trip the soft clay mud sucking at each footstep as including: Scott Mori (NY), Jean-Jacques de the water deepened well past the tops of our Granville (CAY), and Sophie Gonzalez (CAY), boots, each step becoming a laborious effort. Pierre Olivier Albano, President of the Ti-Palm The first population of Attalea was the typical Society, and Johannes Moonen of the Emerald sort found in flooded swamp forest that I had Jungle Village. For funding I would like to seen in Bagne des Annamites. We labored on acknowledge the support of Lillian Fessenden, past this population, down another flooded the Paul Drummond Fund for Palm road, across another savanna and up a Conservation and of course Montgomery moderate slope to some more muddy logging Botanical Center. Finally I would like to thank roads. In the low swampy depressions between the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden the slopes was an abundance of the same herbarium (FTG) for use of their facilities to Attalea that I had seen before. I am now finish processing my dried material. convinced that all of these swamp forest-loving LITERATURE CITED acaulesent Attalea (Scheel ea-type) are all the same species. GLASSMAN , S. 1999. A taxonomic treatment of the palm subtribe, Attaleinae (Tribe Type locality at kilometer marker 22 on Cocoeae). Illinois Biological Monographs 59. National Route 2 MORI , S., G. C REMERS , C. G RACIE AND J.-J. DE The type locality for a species is the very place GRANVILLE . 1997. Guide to the Vascular Plants from which the original dried specimen of Central Guiana: Part 1. Pteridophyes, (holotype) for that species was collected. There Gymnosperms, and . is no better way to understand a species than Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden to return to its original collecting site. Vol. 76.

130