''Phytelephas seemannii'', commonly called Panama ivory palm, is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. They include all forbs (flowering plants without a woody stem), grasses and grass-like plants, a vast majority of ...

in the family Arecaceae. It is one of the plants used for

vegetable ivory Vegetable ivory or tagua nut is a product made from the very hard white endosperm of the seeds of certain palm trees. Vegetable ivory is named for its resemblance to animal ivory. Species in the genus '' Phytelephas'' (literally "elephant pl ...

Names

The

species epithet Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany) A botanical name ...

''seemannii'' honors botanist

Berthold Carl Seemann Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Hanover, Germany – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua, Central America), was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America. In 1844 he tra ...

who collected some of the first specimens, including the

lectotype In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes th ...

. In

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

it is called (), (), and

tagua ''Phytelephas'' is a genus containing six known species of dioecious palms (family Arecaceae), occurring from southern Panama along the Andes to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, northwestern Brazil, and Peru. They are commonly known as ivory palms, ...

. In

Colombian Spanish Colombian Spanish (Spanish: ''español colombiano'') is a grouping of the varieties of Spanish spoken in Colombia. The term is of more geographical than linguistic relevance, since the dialects spoken in the various regions of Colombia are quit ...

it is additionally known as . In Cuna it is , or . In both the

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

and

Choco languages The Choco languages (also Chocoan, Chocó, Chokó) are a small family of Native American languages spread across Colombia and Panama. Family division Choco consists of six known branches, all but two of which are extinct. *The Emberá langua ...

it is called .

Habitat

''Phytelephas seemannii'' is native to Colombia and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

, with much of it growing in shaded areas by rivers in

lowland Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of p ...

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfo ...

in Colombia's

Pacific/Chocó natural region The Pacific/Chocó region is one of the five major natural regions of Colombia. Ecologically, this region belongs entirely to the Chocó Biogeographic Region and is considered a biodiversity hotspot. It also has areas with the highest rainfa ...

. It is usually found at elevations from in semi-

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

forests.

Subspecies

''Phytelephas seemannii'' has two subspecies, ''P. s.'' ssp. ''brevipes'' and ''P. s.'' ssp. ''seemannii''. ''P. s.'' ssp. ''brevipes'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found els ...

to the upper Mamoní Valley in Panama, at or below in elevation, and may be a hybrid of ''P. seemannii'' and ''P. macrocarpa''.

Description

''Phytelephas seemannii'' most closely resembles '' Phytelephas macrocarpa''. However, the former has leaves that have fewer pinnae which are larger. Its trunk is also not upright but "creeping" and

decumbent This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Gloss ...

. The tree is generally less than tall, with

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

s below the mark. Its

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or o ...

s are double instead of in threes or fours. On the male flowers are only 36

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filam ...

s and not the hundreds of other species. The heads contain fewer fruits than other species, but inside are more nuts that are larger. Typically each fruit has 5 seeds protected by a fibrous coat, and each inflorescence has up to 8 fruits. Each tree can have dozens of inflorescences at a time. In immature seeds, the

endosperm The endosperm is a tissue produced inside the seeds of most of the flowering plants following double fertilization. It is triploid (meaning three chromosome sets per nucleus) in most species, which may be auxin-driven. It surrounds the embryo an ...

is a liquid, like in a

coconut The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or ...

, and then later it hardens as the fruit wall softens and deteriorates.

Ecology

Panama ivory palm trees flower after the end of the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The ...

, between February and May. The flowers are pollinated by insects, specifically by two types of

rove beetle The rove beetles are a family (Staphylinidae) of beetles, primarily distinguished by their short elytra (wing covers) that typically leave more than half of their abdominal segments exposed. With roughly 63,000 species in thousands of genera, th ...

s, pollen-eating '' Amazoncharis spp.'' and their predators in the genus '' Xanthopygus''. The ''Amazoncharis'' beetles hollow out egg chambers within the male

, similar to how beetles in the related

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants). The early use of this word is from 19th century. An example of subtribe i ...

'' Gyrophaenina'' do inside of

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground, on soil, or on its food source. ''Toadstool'' generally denotes one poisonous to humans. The standard for the name "mushroom" is ...

s. Squirrels and

agouti The agouti (, ) or common agouti is any of several rodent species of the genus ''Dasyprocta''. They are native to Middle America, northern and central South America, and the southern Lesser Antilles. Some species have also been introduced else ...

s will eat the fleshy inner

mesocarp Fruit anatomy is the plant anatomy of the internal structure of fruit. Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers. They are found in three main anatomical categories: aggregate fruits, multiple fruits, and simple fruits. A ...

surrounding the

endocarp Fruit anatomy is the plant anatomy of the internal structure of fruit. Fruits are the mature ovary or ovaries of one or more flowers. They are found in three main anatomical categories: aggregate fruits, multiple fruits, and simple fruits. A ...

of the fruit, but do not eat the extremely hard

. The rock-hard endosperm also makes the seed immune from most insect pests.

Seed dispersers In Spermatophyte plants, seed dispersal is the movement, spread or transport of seeds away from the parent plant. Plants have limited mobility and rely upon a variety of dispersal vectors to transport their seeds, including both abiotic vecto ...

include the Central American agouti ('' Dasyprocta punctata''), and lowland paca ('' Agouti paca'').

Uses

The seeds are traded at a regional international level as

, which is also called tagua. This commercial use is a threat to the species, but progress is being made on using more sustainable practices and conservation. As the tree typically grows only tall, it fortunately was not chopped down to harvest the seeds as was done with '' Phytelephas aequatorialis'' at the peak of tagua harvesting. The jelly-like liquid in the immature seeds, which later turns into the vegetable ivory, is edible. Occasionally in the

marketplace A marketplace or market place is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from the Arabic), '' ...

s of

Guna Yala Guna Yala, formerly known as San Blas, is a '' comarca indígena'' (indigenous province) in northeast Panama. Guna Yala is home to the indigenous people known as the Gunas. Its capital is Gaigirgordub. It is bounded on the north by the Car ...

the thin crust surrounding the ivory is sold as food. In Colombia the fronds are sometimes used for

thatch Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5438324 seemannii Flora of Colombia Flora of Panama Conservation dependent plants Ivory Sculpture materials Handicrafts Plants described in 1912 Non-timber forest products Taxonomy articles created by Polbot