Euterpe precatoria facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Euterpe precatoria
Scientific classification
Genus:	Euterpe
Species:	precatoria

Euterpe precatoria is a tall, thin palm with pinnate leaves. This means its leaves look like feathers. You can find this palm growing naturally in Central America, South America, and Trinidad and Tobago. People use E. precatoria to get its fruits. These fruits are similar to the famous açaí berries. However, another palm, Euterpe oleracea, is grown more often because its fruits are bigger.

What Does This Palm Look Like?

This palm usually grows with just one stem, but sometimes it can have a few stems clustered together. These stems can be very tall, from 3 to 20 meters (about 10 to 65 feet) high. They are also quite wide, about 4 to 23 centimeters (1.5 to 9 inches) across. Scientists believe Euterpe precatoria is one of the most common trees in the Amazon rainforest. Even so, it makes up only a small part of all the trees there, just over 1%.

How People Use This Palm

Euterpe precatoria is a special forest product that gives us açaí berries. Besides the tasty fruits, this palm is also a source of something called hearts of palm. This part is eaten as a vegetable, but it's not very nutritious.

Because this palm usually has only one stem, harvesting the heart of palm unfortunately kills the entire tree. This has led to fewer Euterpe precatoria palms in the wild. In the 1990s, many of these palms were harvested for heart of palm in Peru and Bolivia. However, the amount harvested dropped in the early 2000s because too many trees were cut down. Today, the price for heart of palm from this tree is high in Peru because it's now harder to find in nature.

Different Kinds of This Palm

There are two main types, or varieties, of Euterpe precatoria:

• E. precatoria var. precatoria : This type has tall, single stems. You can find it in Trinidad and across most of the South American areas where the palm grows.
• E. precatoria var. longivaginata : This type was identified by A.J.Hend.. It has shorter stems that can be single or clustered. This variety is found in Colombia and Central America.

Names and Traditional Uses

This palm has many common names depending on where you are. In Belize, it's called mountain cabbage. In Brazil, people call it açai, açaizeiro, açaí-do-amazonas, or açaí-solitário. In Colombia, it's known as asaí and palmiche. People in French Guiana call it wassaï. In Peru, it's huasaí, and in Venezuela, it's manaca.

Besides the fruits and heart of palm, other parts of the tree are used too. The stems are strong and are used for building things. A drink is made from the fruit. Even the roots are used in traditional medicine.

See also

In Spanish: Euterpe precatoria para niños