Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Arecales > Arecaceae > Astrocaryum > Astrocaryum aculeatissimum

Astrocaryum aculeatissimum

Synonyms: Astrocaryum ayri; Toxophoenix aculeatissima (homotypic)

Wikipedia Abstract

Astrocaryum aculeatissimum (syn. Astrocaryum ayri Mart., Toxophoenix aculeatissima Schott) is a palm native to Atlantic Coast restingas vegetation, which is an ecosystem of Atlantic Forest biome in Brazil. This plant has a commercial value because it has useful fibers which may be used to make production of brooms. In addition, it is also used as a medicinal plant. The trunk of the tree is covered by rings of very sharp spines, believed by some biologists to have evolved as protection against the extinct Megatherium Giant Ground Sloth.
View Wikipedia Record: Astrocaryum aculeatissimum

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium-High
Fruit Conspicuous [2]  No
Height [2]  26 feet (8 m)
Fruit Color [2]  Brown

Predators

Brassolis astyra[3]
Conchaspis lepagei[4]
Opsiphanes quiteria (Butterfly)[3]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Kissling, W. Daniel et al. (2019), Data from: PalmTraits 1.0, a species-level functional trait database for palms worldwide, v4, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ts45225
♦ 3Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0