Description: Palma Real has a straight, cylindrical trunk (40 cm). Flaring slightly at it's base to accommodate the emergence of many fibrous roots, the columnar bole maintains an otherwise uniform diameter. Smooth, spineless, and gray-brown in color, the palm's surface is conspicuously marked by the wide, encircling, and periodic leaf scars typical of all Arecaceae. The extremely large leaves (6 by 0.8 m) are confined to the pinnacle of the tree, and they emanate from a common locus where the growth-producing palm heart is found. Palma Real fronds are pinnately compound, and the numerous, dark-green, ribbon-like leaflets all lie within a single plane and are attached to a thick, dark-brown, petiole. More notable and distinguishing, however, is the manner in which these fronds are extended. Angled upwards, the plane containing the frond leaflets is vertically oriented. About 2/3 of the way from its point of attachment to the bole, the petiole weakens and bends, causing the distal portion of the frond to droop downward.
Thus oriented, the Palma Real
leaf bears a marked resemblance to the tail of a rooster (hence
the English common name for this species). New foliage is produced
continuously, with the folded frond spikes growing vertically
from the top of the apical bud. As more leaves are formed, the
older ones are gradually displaced laterally - pushed to the sides
of the crown. Over time, the petioles are slowly rotate away from
the tree's apex. Before they become completely horizontal, the
fronds die and fall from the tree. Flowers (1 cm) appear
in huge racemes (1 m) that grow from in leaf axils. Initially
protected by equally large, woody, boat-shaped coverts, the white
racemes support a staggering number of rice-like or three-petaled
blossoms. A strong and pungent smell emanating from these racemes
penetrates the humid forest air and is often the first clue that
a fertile raceme is near. (This musty odor can be so omnipresent
and persistent that it is often associated with the dank rainforest
environment.) Flower racemes continue to appear over an extended
period of time - though relatively infrequently - during the mid
to late rainy season (from late June to November). Soon after
flowering, large numbers of fruits begin to thickly pack the same
racemes. Each fruit is a sessile, ovoid drupe (4 by 2.5
cm) with a pronounced distal point and a large, star-shaped calyx
located proximally. Ripening from green to a dull, yellow-brown
or burnt-orange color, the fruit possesses a soft layer of mildly-sweet,
rich, and greasy flesh underneath a thin, woody skin. A single,
large, central seed fills the fruit core. Though these nuts reach
full size within two months after flowering, ripening and harvest
are delayed until the early part of the following rainy season.
These heavy, pendulous racemes thus accumulate slowly during the
later part of the rainy season, remaining dormant during the dry
"summer" months. Ripening only commences in May, with
the onset of the first heavy rains. Fruits continue to mature
until August.
