The genus name is dedicated to King Juba II of Mauritania (first century BC.) author - they say - one of the first treatises on botany. It includes one species, native to Chile, as the specific attribute says. It 's a majestic palm (his case is not synonymous J. spectabilis), up to 25 m high, has a straight trunk and sturdy, with a diameter of 1 m and more, gray-brown, with traces of horizontal leaf and somewhat enlarged to 'barrel' in the middle. The leaves are pinnate, glaucous green and glossy, 4-5 m long, early deciduous after drying. The petiole is unarmed, but with the base of rugged brown hair, and the spine tapering towards the apex.
Numerous segments, V-folded, measuring up to 60 cm and are placed on either side of the spine in one plane, or at an angle very open. The inflorescences (spadices with one order of branching) are up to five feet, from between the leaves and are protected at the base by striking Spathes woody, rough exterior, long finish. The fruits are edible, though not all I taste, at first greenish, yellow-orange at maturity, they measure about 5 cm and are grouped in dense branched seed heads.
The seeds are 'coconut' (known in Chile coquitos) miniature containing within them un'endosperma very similar in flavor and texture to that of Cocos nucifera . was one of the first trees to be imported into Europe, because of its hardiness, perhaps as early as 1600, following the explorations of the Spaniards in South America, from 1858 to news of this palm in the north of Italy (Lake Garda and Turin) and since 1877 in Tuscany.
0 comments:
Post a Comment