''Acrocomia crispa'', also known as the Cuban belly palm or corojo, a

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae ** List of Arecaceae genera **Palm oil * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music ...

species which is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. Formerly placed in its own genus, ''Gastrococos'', recent work found that that genus was nested within ''Acrocomia''. It is a tall, spiny palm with a trunk that is slender at the base, but swollen in the middle, giving it the name "Cuban belly palm" in English. The young palm tree stems are edible by humans and animals; the ripe fruit ripe is used to produce cooking oil and for animal feed.

Description

''Acrocomia crispa'' is a single-stemmed palm tree with pinnately-compound leaves. Stems are tall, with a distinct, "spindle-shaped" bulge halfway up the stem. Trunks are densely spiny, but becomes smooth and grey as the trunk ages. Trees have 10-20 leaves which are up to with leaflets which are approximately opposite.

Taxonomy

The species was first described by as ''Cocos crispa'' by

Carl Sigismund Kunth Carl Sigismund Kunth (18 June 1788 – 22 March 1850) was a German botanist. He was also known as Karl Sigismund Kunth or anglicized as Charles Sigismund Kunth. He was one of the early systematic botanists who focused on studying the plants of th ...

in 1816 based on an incomplete specimen collected by

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

and

Aimé Bonpland Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland (; 22 August 1773 – 11 May 1858) was a French List of explorers, explorer and botany, botanist who traveled with Alexander von Humboldt in Latin America from 1799 to 1804. He co-authored volumes of the scie ...

. In 1866 Sebastián Alfredo de Morales described ''Gastrococcus armentalis'' based on a distinct type species. Although Morales was able to examine the specimen that Kunth's species was based on, he concluded that the two collections represented different species. In 1912, based on Charles Fuller Baker's description,

Odoardo Beccari Odoardo Beccari (16 November 1843 – 25 October 1920) was an Italian botanist famous for his discoveries in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Australia. He has been called the greatest botanist to ever study Malesia. Life Youth and education (18 ...

published a formal description ''Acrocomia crispa'', in which he included Kunth's ''C. cripsa''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2711831 crispa Endemic flora of Cuba Trees of Cuba Plants described in 1817 Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari