Family COCACEAE
The cocoid palms are a distinctly American group, the African oil-palm, Elaeis Guineensis and the cocoanut being the only outliers of the family which have been supposed to be indigenous in the Old World. South America is the center of distribution and is the home of a large proportion of the two hundred or more species. Only five genera reach Puerto Rico, and one of these, Cocos, was probably not a native of the island.
Key to the Subfamilies of Cocaceae
Trunks, stems, and midribs beset with sharp spines; seeds foraminate at or above the middle.
Subfamily Bactridinae.
Trunks and other parts unarmed; seeds foraminate at base.
Subfamily Cocinae.
Subfamily Bactridinae
Some of the numerous South American representatives of this group are nearly smooth, but the three genera known from Puerto Rico have the trunks, leaf-bases, midribs and inflorescences beset with sharp black spines, and are thus readily recognizable.
Key to the Genera of Bactridinae
Trunk small, cespitose; leaves separated by long internodes; foramina of seeds apical.
Bactris.
Trunk medium or large, solitary; leaves crowded together at the summit; foramina peripheral.
Trunk slender; leaf-divisions broad, praemorse-truncate; pistillate and staminate flowers intermixed on the inflorescence; exocarp fleshy.
Curima.
Trunk robust; leaf-divisions narrow, sharp-pointed; pistillate flowers below and separate from the staminate; exocarp fibrous.
Acrocomia.
BACTRIS Jacquin, Stirp. Am. 279. pl. 271. 1763
The type of this genus, Bactris minor Jacquin, described from the vicinity of Carthagena, Colombia, is a small spiny palm with creeping rootstocks. The upright trunks are about an inch thick and twelve feet high, with long spiny internodes. The fruits are fleshy, purple, and about the size of a cherry. Several species of Bactris are known from the West Indies though the generic name has doubtless been applied rather loosely to all the small spiny cocoid palms.
The two following species of Bactris from Puerto Rico described by Martius several decades ago seem not to have been secured by recent collectors unless it be true, as suggested below, that one of them, the simple-leaved B. acanthophylla applies to a young Curima. Of B. Pavoniana the narrowly grass-like leaf-divisions would be sufficiently characteristic to separate it at once from all other palms known from Puerto Rico.
Bactris acanthophylla Martius, Palm. Orbign. 67
“Trunk low, spiny; frond simple, the petiole spiny; blade lanceolate in young plants, oblong in the adult, cuneate at the base and bifid at apex, the margin unequally erose, unarmed; rachis and primary veins spiny on both sides; spines bristle-like, narrowed at base, those of the petiole black, those of the blades fuscous.”
“In the western part of the island of Puerto Rico, near the village of Yrurena, in swampy places on the margins of aboriginal forests at an altitude of 400 feet; collected by Wylder, 1827.” (Martius Hist. Palm. 3: 281.)
A specimen to which the above diagnosis would not be inapplicable was collected by Sintenis in the mountain forests near Maricao (no. 484). It was distributed from Berlin as a Martinezia, together with two other very young plants and a seed to which one of these was attached.
The seed evidently did not come from a cocoid palm but together with the young seedlings may belong to Acrista. The large spiny plant is probably a young specimen of Curima, and should these suggestions prove to be correct the specific name acanthophylla must be transferred to this genus though whether it will replace colophylla or not is not to be determined until it can be ascertained that the Maricao species is the same as that here described from Bayamon.
Bactris Pavoniana Martius, Palm. Orbign. 70
“Frond pinnate, rachis with rather long spines and black bristles: linear acuminate, about equally distant, the terminal united, setose-ciliate, glaucous below and with a sparse whitish down.”
“Puerto Rico; Pavon.” (Martius, Hist. Pal. 3: 282.)
Grisebach has reported this species from Antigua and has redescribed it as follows, presumably from the Antigua specimens.
“‘Trunk low’; leaves pinnatisect: segments numerous, grass-like, linear-acuminate or the uppermost broader by cohesion, glaucous and minutely puberulous or glabrescent beneath, approximate, subequidistant, reduplicate at the base: rachis armed with very long black prickles and rare bristles, keeled above.—Flowers unknown; leaf segments (in our specimens, which are cut off, perhaps about the middle of the rachis) more than 30–jugal, 3‴–6‴ distant, 12″–8″ long, 4‴–2‴ broad, superior gradually shorter, the uppermost cohering ones sometimes 6‴–8‴ broad: prickles scattered or clustered, slender, the greatest 2″ long. Hab. Antigua: Wullschl., Blubber valley; [Portorico].” (Grisebach, Fl. Brit. W. I., 520. 1864.)
Curima gen. nov.
Trunk rather slender, internodes armed with scattered slender spines. Leaves and inflorescence also spiny, especially on the proximal parts. Pinnae numerous, strap-shaped, praemorse-truncate, imperfectly separated near the ends of the leaves. Inflorescence rather slender, once-branched; pistillate flowers mostly located near the bases of the branches. Fruit drupaceous, exocarp fleshy, not fibrous; foramina peripheral.
A palm related to Acrocomia and to the genera commonly grouped under the name Martinezia, to which Aiphanes and Marara are generally referred as synonyms. Reasons why none of these names appears available for the Puerto Rico species are given below. The characters of the fruit, with foramina near the middle, seem to indicate that Curima is not remotely related to Acrocomia, from which it differs superficially in the more slender habit, the truncate or praemorse leaves and the very long and lax inflorescence.
Curima colophylla sp. nov. [Plate 46.]
The solitary trunk rises from a mass of spiny roots somewhat smaller than those of the llume palm (Aeria). Diameter of trunk from 1–1.5 cm., often slightly thinner near the ground, though showing no such tendency to bulge as appears in Roystonea, Aeria and Acrocomia. The surface of the internodes is rather sparingly provided with needle-like spines smaller and more slender than those of Acrocomia. On old trunks the spines are often more or less completely absent.
Leaves 2.13–2.5 m. long, with from 30 to 40 pairs of strap-shaped praemorse-truncate divisions shorter and broader as the end of the leaf is approached, and with a terminal undivided area several inches wide. There is no apparent tendency toward the arrangement of the leaf-divisions in clusters as in Martinezia caryotaefolia and other allied species.
The base, rachis, midribs and even the surfaces of the pinnae are beset with coarse black or deep red spines which are closely appressed when young and become erect as soon as the surfaces are exposed, all the parts except the spines and the upper surfaces of the leaf-division being covered at first with a light grayish or brownish scurfy coating which gradually disappears.
The inner spathe is narrowly fusiform and about 1 m. long. It splits to the level of the outer spathe revealing the spadix and its extremely spiny peduncle. The flowers are greenish cream colored in mass, paler and not so yellow as in Acrocomia. The pistillate flowers are relatively very few and located near the base of the simple branches.
The cherry-like fruits are dull orange or brick red with rather dry fleshy or oily exocarp having a rather mealy though distinctly acid flavor, but no really unpleasant taste. This fleshy covering is only very slightly fibrous, and that near the base; the seeds fall off very easily sometimes leaving the base of the exocarp attached to the fruiting branch. The nut is about 12 mm. in greatest or transverse diameter and about 10 mm. high, while the fresh fruit is 14–16 mm. through and 12 or 13 mm. thick. The surface is deeply and irregularly pitted and marked with three radially fibrous striate foveolae.
It is perhaps too soon to assert that there is only one species of the present genus in Puerto Rico. The trees certainly differ considerably in size though not more than the cocoanut and others. There is also a noticeable difference in the abundance of spines. Such apparent variability may, however, be due to age, the older trees tending to become less densely beset with the brittle black spines which are often conspicuous on young specimens.
The specimens (no. 878) and photographs on which this genus and species were based were secured on the limestone hills near the wagon road between Bayamon and Toa Baja where the present palm is not uncommon.
Curima appeared to be especially abundant about Bayamon but is probably rather generally distributed in the limestone hills of the island, perhaps also on other soils. A few trees were seen along the road between Utuado and Lares, and numerous others between Isolina and Manati. Sintenis collected specimens of what is apparently the same species near Juncos and Hato Grande, and at Maricao young specimens discussed under Bactris acanthophylla.
As far as Puerto Rico is concerned, this palm is very easily recognized by means of the curiously truncate leaf-divisions, the outer margins of which appear as though accidentally injured or eaten away by caterpillars. This feature is, however, shared with numerous other West Indian and South American palms, though apparently only one, the so-called grigri palm of Martinique can be referred to the present genus with confidence. For this the name Curima corallina (Martinezia corallina Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. 3: 284) appears to be correct, although Martius places Gaertner’s much older Bactris minima as a synonym for his species. Gaertner, however, was making a second attempt at renaming Jacquin’s Bactris minor, having previously misplaced that name in connection with a West Indian Acrocomia, probably the same to which Jacquin had already supplied the name Cocos aculeatus. Thus it is possible to treat Bactris minima Gaertner as a synonym of Bactris minor Jacquin and the restoration of Gaertner’s inappropriate name for the Curima is thus avoided.
With this preliminary description we may return to the consideration of the generic names Martinezia, Aiphanes and Marara which other writers have applied to relatives of the present palm or treated as synonyms. Martinezia was described by Ruiz and Pavon (Prodr. Flor. Per. et Chil. 148. 1794) for five Peruvian palms, but it was amended by Martius (Hist. Nat. Palm. 3: 283) by the removal of all the original species and the substitution of a new set. Of the original species studied by Ruiz and Pavon only two, M. ciliata and M. abrupta were mentioned in connection with the original description of the genus, and this because they offered exceptions to the generic characters. If these were to be excluded for this reason from those among which the type is to be sought, the name Martinezia must go with the subsequently published M. ensiformis, now referred to Euterpe[[6]] or with M. lanceolata and M. linearis, now placed in Chamaedorea. If we hold to the first species, M. ciliata, Martinezia is probably a synonym of Bactris. The second species, M. abrupta, has escaped Martius and the Index Kewensis, in which a sixth name M. interrupta is the only one by Ruiz and Pavon now credited as being a genuine Martinezia. Thus by the method of elimination Martinezia would according to current classification replace Chamaedorea while by the method of types it would stand as a synonym of Bactris.
The genus Aiphanes was established by Willdenow on Aiphanes aculeata, a spiny palm from the mountains about Caracas. The trunk is said to be erect, ten meters high, subcylindrical and very spiny. The leaves are about 1.6 m. long, with four pairs of remote, broad, cuneate, praemorse pinnae, strongly whitish pubescent on the under side; the petiole is also beset with spines. Spathe acuminate at both ends, aculeate on the outside, smooth within, opening longitudinally; spadix 4.5 dm. long, composed of cylindrical spikes placed opposite. Flowers hermaphrodite; calyx trifid, the divisions acute; petals acuminate; filaments 6, subulate, anthers rounded, style as long as the stamens, stigma trifid; drupe globose, the fleshy farinaceous pulp rather tasteless, though edible; nut hard, of the size of a musket ball, unilocular, black, furrowed with a large number of grayish grooves, of which three are always much larger than the others. The kernel is white, very sweet, and very good to eat. Aiphanes grows in the ravines and forests of the high mountains of the district of Caucagua, province of Caracas, Venezuela and requires a fertile, somewhat moist soil. It flowers and fruits in July.
From the above it appears that Aiphanes is a genus quite different from Curima, approaching some of the South American species of Bactris much more closely than it resembles the Puerto Rico tree.
The genus Marara was based by Karsten (Linnaea, 28: 389) on M. bicuspidata from Colombia, a cespitose palm having a trunk 7 meters high and 10 cm. in diameter, clothed with black spines 6 to 8 mm. long. The leaves are 125 cm. long with from 60 to 80 pairs of cuneate pinnules which measure 3 dm. in length and 15 cm. in width, and are clustered in sixes or eights. This appears to be a very extreme development of the leaf-arrangement seen in the cultivated palm commonly called Martinezia caryotaefolia where the leaflets are distinctly clustered, but by no means so crowded as must be the case when on the side of a leaf 125 cm. long are leaflets with an aggregate width of 10–13 m.
The palm commonly cultivated in conservatories as Martinezia caryotaefolia is obviously allied to Curima, perhaps more closely than to either Aiphanes or Marara, but in addition to the clustered pinnules it has a more slender habit, especially apparent in the long internodes and the more lax inflorescence. This difference in habit is also evidently correlated with the fact that the leaf-bases do not become deeply gibbous and obliquely inclined from the trunk as in Curima but remain closely sheathing. Moreover, the upper side of the leaf-stalk which in the Puerto Rico palm is deeply channeled and has lateral corners sharp or torn into fibers nearly to the insertion of the lowest pinnae is in the conservatory species nearly cylindrical for a long distance below the pinnae, and has long spines on the upper side as well as on the lower. It is as though the ligule were located in Curima near the insertion of the lowest pinnae while in the other form it remains close to the trunk, with a cylindrical section intercalated to reach to where the pinnae begin. Apparently we are dealing with still another generic group for which the name Tilmia would not be inappropriate in allusion to the shorn and disheveled appearance which it shares with Curima. The species studied are Tilmia caryotaefolia (Martinezia caryotaefolia H.B.K. Nov. Gen. et Sp. I: 305. pl. 699) in the National Botanic Garden and T. disticha (Martinezia disticha Linden, Cat. 32. 1875).
The seeds of Tilma caryotaefolia are like those of Curima, but considerably larger, rounder, and much smoother. The foramina are peripheral, but are much smaller and more shallow, those of Curima being surrounded, as it were, by a prominent rim which adds somewhat to the apparent width of the seed. In both genera the nuts are unsymmetrical, the side which has the largest foramen being distinctly larger than the others and in Curima the irregularly pitted sculpture is coarser.
ACROCOMIA Martius, Hist. Nat. Palm. 2: 66
A genus of palms distributed through tropical America from Mexico to Cuba and Paraguay. All the species are of stocky, compact growth, with a dense crown of numerous leaves. The trunk and the leaf-stalks are usually armed with strong, sharp spines, sometimes several inches long.
Although totally different on close inspection this genus has in Puerto Rico a superficial resemblance to the royal palm, which often deceives travelers. The similarity lies mostly in the two facts that both the royal and corozo palms are more robust and stiffly erect than the cocoanut, and that the leaf-divisions instead of lying horizontal and in one plane are tilted at different angles to the midrib, thus giving the foliage seen in the mass a somewhat unkempt appearance in comparison with the cocoanut.
In distinguishing the corozo palm from the royal palm when seen at a distance so great that the spines of the one and the columnar green leaf-sheaths of the other can not be seen, recourse may be had to the following facts. The leaf crown of the corozo palm is much rounder, thicker and more compact than that of the royal palm, since it contains many more leaves, and these persist much longer. The royal palm can also be known by the unopened leaves which project straight upward like flag-poles or lightning-rods, while in Acrocomia the leaves open as they are pushed out and seldom offer a suggestion of the spire-like effect.
Acrocomia media sp. nov.
Trunk 20–30 cm. in diameter near the base, thickened above to 50 cm. or less; height commonly about 6–8 m. rarely exceeding 10 m. Surface of trunk with slight annular impressions. Internodes armed with slender black spines, the larger 10–15 cm. long, mostly confined to the lower half of the internodes. Fruit green, becoming yellowish, the husk firmly fibrous, inedible; about 35 mm. in diameter, nearly spherical in shape, with a distinct apical papilla. Kernel 25 mm. wide by 22 mm. long; width of the cavity 18 mm. The type specimen was collected near Ponce (photograph no. 255).
The Acrocomia of Puerto Rico seems to differ from A. aculeata (Jacquin) in its robust habit and somewhat bulging trunk, while it is less stout and less swollen than A. fusiformis (Swartz). The name Acrocomia lasiospatha, although used by Martius and Grisebach has no warrant for supplanting fusiformis of Swartz, which must be preferred for the Jamaica species with the thick, swollen trunk.
In Jamaica there seem to be at least two species of Acrocomia, the larger of which is called the “great macaw” palm, and is described as having a fusiform trunk as thick as a man’s body. What is presumably the same species occurs in Cuba as shown by a photograph from the vicinity of La Gloria on the north coast. The greatest diameter of the trunk is three or four times the thickness near the base. In Puerto Rico no trees approximating these proportions were observed, the greatest amount of swelling probably not reaching twice the diameter below. According to Maza Acrocomia lasiospatha grows wild in Cuba and is known under the name “coroja de Jamaica.” Swartz described his Cocos fusiformis on the supposition that it was distinct from the Cocos aculeatus of Jacquin, from Martinique, by reason of the fusiform trunk. The species was, nevertheless, reduced by Martius to his South American Acrocomia sclerocarpa, perhaps because the spathe is said to be spiny, a character probably subject to great variation.
Jacquin’s name Acrocomia aculeata (1763) must, it seems, be used for the West Indian palm placed by Martius under his A. sclerocarpa, which is to be maintained, if at all, as a South American species. Jacquin declares that the habit of his tree is similar to that of Cocos nucifera and Cocos amara (Syagrus), and his figure shows a tall straight trunk tapering slightly upward, with no tendency to bulge. The spines of the trunk are few and the midribs are aculeate on both sides. The drawing of the fruit is 37 mm. long by 41 mm. wide and has a broad conic papilla at apex. As indicated above, such a tree was not noticed in Puerto Rico where all the corozo palms are distinctly, though slightly, thicker some distance above the base, though apparently never equaling A. fusiformis in this respect.
Subfamily Cocinae
Key to the Genera of Cocinae
Trunk distinctly ringed, rising from an inclined swollen base; leaves numerous, many of the lower drooping or pendant, the divisions many and narrow; fruits very large, borne continuously.
Cocos.
Trunk nearly smooth, straight and columnar; leaves fewer, not becoming pendant, divisions less numerous and broader; fruits small, borne at one time and ripening together.
Cocops.
Cocos nucifera Linn. Sp. Pl. 1188. 1753
The cocoa-palm is largely confined to the neighborhood of the coast, but is occasionally planted in small numbers in the interior districts, though it generally does not thrive in such situations especially on the north side of the island. On the drier southern slope of Puerto Rico, which is avoided by the royal palm, the cocoanut seems to thrive better, when it has once become established. Cocoanuts are mostly gathered while still green, for the sake of the milk or, as it is there called, the water (coco de agua) a popular beverage wherever obtainable. Although the local consumption of nuts for this purpose is considerable it is largely confined to the towns of the coast region. Thus it may be said that in Puerto Rico the cocoa-palm affords a luxury rather than a necessity, and that it is exceeded in economic importance by the royal palm.
Cocops gen. nov.
In a valley on the road between Lares and San Sebastian several young palms were noticed with leaves similar to the cocoanut, but smaller and finer. Finally one mature specimen was found, with both trunk and leaves strongly suggesting the cocoanut, but much smaller. The leaves are light green, the leaflets in one plane, and the fibers separating from the narrow base of the leaf. The fibers are few and flimsy, but like those of the cocoanut and other South American species of Cocos. The palm stood within a few feet of a small permanent brook, down which the seeds had evidently been carried and there were several young palms along the bank. The native living in an adjacent house could give us no name except palmilla, and seemed to think that none was necessary since the tree does not yield yagua or anything else of use. Its early extermination is therefore not unlikely.
In the absence of flowers and fruit[[7]] the relationships of the present genus cannot be ascertained nor its validity satisfactorily established. There seems, however, to be no reason for including the species in any of the genera known from Puerto Rico or other parts of the West Indies, and to associate it with Central and South American types would be a still less warrantable procedure.
It is also believed that under the present circumstances the application of a name is justified by convenience of reference and that this will also assist in securing the attention of botanical collectors better than a mere allusion to “an unknown palm which may be new.”
Cocops rivalis sp. nov.
In diameter the trunk appeared to be about midway between the palma de sierra (Acrista) and the cocoanut, and had the short internodes of the latter. The leaves, however, probably remain somewhat smaller than those of Acrista to which they might also be said to have a general similarity, except at the base where their cocoid proclivities become obvious. At a little distance Cocops might be overlooked as Acrista, while at shorter range it might be mistaken for a very depauperate cocoanut. No species of Cocos is, however, known to be native in the West Indies except the doubtful Cocos crispus H.B.K., from Cuba.
As a species Cocops rivalis may prove to be similar to Syagrus amara (Jacquin), which is reported as far north as Jamaica, but it seems to have no true generic affinity with Syagrus cocoides Martius, the South American palm which is the type of its genus. According to Martius S. amara is 30 cm. in diameter, as large or larger than Cocos nucifera and attains the height of from 20 to 35 meters; Syagrus cocoides, on the other hand, is a small slender palm with a trunk 2.5–3 m. high and 5–7.5 cm. in diameter, and with foliage and habit resembling the slender and diffuse South American species referred by Martius to Cocos, but very different from Cocos nucifera or from Cocops.
A leaf collected by Sintenis (no. 6061) near Camuy and coming from Berlin labeled Oreodoxa, obviously did not originate with an arecoid palm, but probably belongs with the present species. The region of Camuy is but a few miles from Lares, but there is much extremely rough and unoccupied country between, so that the danger of extermination appears to be somewhat diminished.