Aiphanes ulei (Dammer) Burret

Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Distribution

Nativa en Colombia; Alt. 90 - 2200 m.; Amazonia, Andes.

Morphology General Habit

Subarbusto, arbusto, palma solitaria

Conservation

Preocupación Menor

Habitat

Often common, though never abundant, in primary rain forest, sometimes also in patches of disturbed or even secondary forest. In Ecuador the species is found both on terra firme and in temporarily flooded forest.

General Description

Solitary. Stem 0-6 m tall, 2.5-5 cm diam., armed with black spines, to 7 cm long. Leaves 6-15, erect and arching; sheath 20-35 cm long, densely armed with black spines; petiole 5-70 cm long, with a thin, dark brown, caducous indument, armed as the sheath, less toward apex; rachis 60-180 cm long, with an indument like that on petiole, black spinules, and scattered black spines, to 5 cm long; pinnae 9-14 per side, inserted in pairs or rarely triplets separated by 10-20 cm, broadly cuneate, 1-3(-4) times as long as wide, sometimes strongly plicate along secondary veins, incised to bilobulate praemorse at apex, symmetrical around midrib, distal margin ecaudate, adaxial side dark green and glabrous, abaxial side pale greyish to silverish green, glabrous or minutely spinulose; basal pinnae 11-20 x 2-9 cm; middle pinnae 14-34 x 8-19 cm; apical pinnae 2-5 ribbed, 22-25 x 5-26 cm. Inflorescence interfoliar, erect, normally exserted above crown, all parts with a thin, dark brown, scaly indument; prophyll 21-32 x 1-3 cm; peduncular bract 65-100 cm long, unarmed, soon disintegrating; peduncle 50-100 cm long, 5-10 mm diam. at junction with rachis, densely armed with black or brown spines, to 1(-3) cm long, rarely almost unarmed; rachis 20-40 cm long, unarmed except at base; rachillae 30-40, strongly appressed to rachis, with densely packed flower groups abaxially, without flowers adaxially, covered with minute spinules; basal rachillae 10-15 cm long, adnate to rachis for 3-5 cm or sometimes all their length, with flowers from base, the proximal ? with triads, in this part thickened and flattened, 6-7 mm wide, the remaining part more slender, 1-3 mm wide, with staminale dyads or singles; apical rachillae 1-4 cm long, staminate, briefly adnate to rachis, somewhat spreading, distally with flowers on all sides; flower groups sunken into pits, subtended by fused bracts, forming a rim around the pit. Staminate flowers white to yellow, ca. 1 mm long; sepals cap-shaped, carinate, in bud almost completely enclosing the petals, 1-1.5 mm long; pelals almost free, valvale, 1-1.5 mm long; filaments 0.5-1 mm long, anthers nearly square, 0.5-0.6 x 0.5-0.7 mm; pistillode minute, sunken into the swollen receptacle. Pistillate flowers 2-3 mm long; sepals imbricate. ca. 2 mm long; petals connate ½, valvate distally, 2-2.5 mm long; staminodial cup ca. 1 mm high, nearly truncate; pistil 1.5-2 mm high, glabrous. Fruits globose, strongly rostrate, ca. 7 mm in diam., rostrum 1-2 mm long.

Distribution

Found in the upper Amazon and on the eastern Andean slopes from southern Colombia to Peru, extending into the westernmost parts of Brazil, reaching 1850 m altitude in central Ecuador, and ca. 1000 m in northern Peru. The species is one of the most widely distributed and most frequently collected in the genus.

Vernacular

Jimena tfué ("chontaduro de nutria"; Colombia, Witoto); pa m si mo ha (Ecuador, Kofán); chontilla (Ecuador).

Bernal, R., G. Galeano, A. Rodríguez, H. Sarmiento y M. Gutiérrez. 2017. Nombres Comunes de las Plantas de Colombia. http://www.biovirtual.unal.edu.co/nombrescomunes/

Vernacular

chontilla

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation

Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/38183/10098834

Conservation

LC - least concern