Related species
Description and phenology
Distribution, abundance and ecology
Uses and economic potential
Collection methods and yields
Propagation and cultivation methods
Research contacts
Aline de Castro
Family: Arecaceae (Palmae)
Species: Mauritia flexuosa Linnaeus filius, Supplementum Plantarum 70, 454. 1781. (Glassman 1972)
Synonyms: Mauritia vinifera Martius, M. setigera Grisebach & Wendland, M. sphaerocarpa Burret, M. minor Burret, M. flexuosa var. venezuela Steyermark (Glassman 1972).
Observation: Previously, two species were distinguished, buriti (M. vinifera) and miriti or buriti-do-brejo (M. flexuosa), by the size of the male inflorescences and the fruits, and by habitat. M. vinifera was defined to occur along river banks and in low-lying acid soils on the plateaus of central Brazil. M. flexuosa occurs in flooded soils in low-lying areas of the north of South America. Currently, these are considered to be ecotypes of the same species.
Common
names: Buriti (from the Tupi Indian language: mburi'ti),
buriti-do-brejo, coqueiro-buriti, buritizeiro, miriti, muriti,
muritim, muritizeiro, muruti, palmeira-dos-brejos, carandaguaçu,
carandaiguaçu (Brazil); moriche (Venezuela, Trinidad); ita;
(Guyana); palmier bâche (French Guiana); achual, aguaje, auashi,
bimón, buritisol, mariti, muriti, moriche (Peru);
caranday-guazu, ideuí (Bolivia); cananguche, chomiya, ideuí,
mariti, miriti, muriti, moriche (Colombia) (Bohorquez 1976,
Borgtoft-Pedersen & Balslev 1990, Dugand 1972, 1976, Ferreira
1975, Glassman 1972).
Mauritia carana
Wallace. This palm, commonly called caraná, is similar to buriti
in size (stem 20-30 cm in diameter, with a mature height of 15-22
m), but each leaflet is united to the next for one-third of its
length and is much more curved at the tips. After the leaf blade
falls from the petiole, the leaf sheaths persist on the stem. As
happens with the piassava fiber palm (Leopoldinia piassaba),
a large quantity of fiber frays from the leaf sheaths under the
crown, although less densely than is the case with piassava. The
spadices grow and mature among the leaves and are a little more
erect and much-smaller than those of the buriti. Fruits are also
less abundant, smaller and oval shaped. Caraná occurs only in
the Negro River basin and the upper Orinoco River basin, being
unknown in the rest of Amazônia. Its leaves are used as thatch,
considered one of the best Amazonian thatches because of the more
entire leaf blade and because it is extremely durable, lasting 8
to 10 years, where others last 3 to 5. Although it is very
similar to buriti in most: respects and is richly endowed with
fiber, rope is not made from its epiderm (Wallace 1853).
Mauritiella armata (Mart.) Burret. This species is widely known as caranaí, buritirana or buriti-mirim (the first and last being the diminutive of caraná and buriti, respectively). It grows in clumps, has much thinner stems (12-15 cm in diameter), but attains up 20 m in height. Its leaves are smaller, with more rigidly held leaflet tips, and spineless petioles. The fruit are elliptical, 2-3 cm in length, with a thin, oily, orange-colored mesocarp, enveloping a thin, spongy endocarp and a single seed. The endosperm is white and tough. Like buriti, it is found in flooded areas, both on the terra firma and in the varzea, being especially common in the Amazonas River estuary. Its fruit is processed and consumed as a juice (called vinho), similar to that of buriti (see below). Fruiting occurs from January to June and fresh fruit occasionally appear in local markets (Cavalcante 1988).
Observation:
Although Balick (1981) recently combined the genera Mauritia
and Mauritiella, Uhl & Dransfield (1987)
consider them to be distinct, due to consistent differences in
growth habit and the arrangement of the flowers. Mauritia
spp. are all single-stemmed, with smooth unarmed trunks, their
pistilate flowers are solitary or occur on very short branches,
and their staminate flowers occur in pairs. Mauritiella
spp. are multistemmed, with spiny stems, their pistilate flowers
occur on short branches, and their staminate flowers are
solitary.
The buriti is a robust,
single-stemmed palm, that may attain 30 m in height. Its crown is
composed of 10-14 large costa-palmate leaves, 5-6 m in total
length. The arrangement of the leaves confers a spherical crown
form, with dead leaves hanging below the crown for a considerable
period before falling. The buriti is a dioecious species, without
vegetative differences to distinguish the male and female
individuals.
The 3-7 axillar male and female inflorescences arise among the lower leaves and are similar in size and shape. The inflorescence peduncle measures 60-100 cm in length, with approximately 10 empty bracts; the rachis, with 25-40 oppositely arranged rachillae, measures 70-140 cm in length. The staminate rachillae have a "cat's tail" shape, with floral bracts hugging the two staminate flowers, arranged in a spiral along the rachillae. The pistilate rachillae are very short, with floral bracts hugging the single pistilate flowers, arranged nearly opposite along the rachillae.
The fruit are nearly spherical to elliptical in shape, varying from 4-5 cm in diameter by 5-7 cm in length, covered with brownish-red scales, 6-7 mm in diameter. The soft mesocarp is orange to reddish-orange: in color. The endocarp (seed coat) is soft, rich in cellulose, and poorly differentiated. The seeds (12 per fruit) are nearly spherical, covered with a brownish testa, with a solid, homogeneous, white albumen, and a sub-basal to laterally placed embryon (see Wessels-Boer (1965) and Uhl & Dransfield (1987) for further description).
The buriti has a root system adapted to its hydrophyllous habitat. The primary roots arise at the base of the stem, occasionally above the level of the soil. Initially they present a positive geotropism (they grow down) until they reach a certain depth, which varies in function of the nature and degree of hydromorphism of the soil (generally about 60 cm), at which point they grow horizontally, attaining up to 40 m in length. On the superior face of these roots, secondary, perpendicular roots arise, with negative geotropism (they grow up), with diameters smaller than 5 mm. These secondary roots have two distinct parts: one subterranean, on which arise smaller horizontal roots, active in water and nutrient absorption; the other aerial, occasionally with vertically oriented branching. The aerial parts have characteristic pneumatozones, where the root epidermis becomes an aerenquimatic structure formed by 2-3 layers of elongated cells slightly separated from each other so that air can circulate freely. These pneumatozones function like air tubes and are extremely important for root respiration during periods of flooding (Granville 1974).
Flowering
and fruiting in buriti are irregularly distributed during the
year, but both occur yearly. In eastern Amazônia, in Belém,
Cavalcante (1988) reports that mature fruit appear in the markets
from January to July. In central Amazônia, flowering occurs at
the end of the rainy season to the beginning of the dry season,
May to August (A. de Castro, not published). The fruits mature
during the following rainy season and are found in the market
from December to June. Urrego (1987) found a similar phenology in
the Colombian Amazon. In Iquitos, Peru, mature fruits are
abundant in the markets from February to August, with a distinct
shortage from September to November, due to seasonal fluctuations
(Padoch 1988). Heinen & Ruddle (1974) observed two flowering
seasons in the Orinoco River delta in Venezuela: the first,
composed principally of male inflorescences, is stimulated by the
increased rainfall at the beginning of the rainy season; the
second occurs in December, stimulated by the more continuous
rains of the rainy season itself, and is composed principally of
female inflorescences. Mature fruits are found year round, with a
noticeable peak from August to October, and a minor peak from
February to April.
The buriti's geographic
distribution covers all of ecological Amazônia, reaching its
northern limits in the Orinoco River valley of Venezuela,
including Trinidad and Tobago (Bailey 1947), French Guiana and
the northern coast of Amapá state, Brazil. In the west, the
Colombian, Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Bolivian Andean foothills
limit its range. In the east and southeast, it occurs widely
throughout the Brazilian Northeast, from Maranhão to Bahia. In
the south, it extends through the cerrado (central Brazil's
sparsely forested savanna) along the river banks as far as Minas
Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul. Throughout the cerrado and
the northeast it is represented by the M. vinifera
ecotype (Cavalcante 1988).
The buriti appears in small groups along the streams that bisect the terra firma (non-flooded upland) forests, where the soils are predominantly sandy to hydromorphic humic gleys. Descending the streams towards their mouths, the buriti becomes more abundant, finally being found in large stands, frequently monospecific, which are especially evident in the estuaries of the major Amazonian tributaries (Peters et al. 1989).
In the central-south of Brazil, where the cerrado vegetation predominates, the buriti is found in formations called veredas, which extend along the river banks and anywhere with soils that retain enough humidity (Bonder 1964).
With respect to abundance, it must be remembered that the buriti is restricted to permanently or seasonally flooded soils, which may comprise 4-6% of Brazilian Amazônia. Castro & Lescure (1990) counted 52 plants (with 15 mature) in a 0.96 ha plot in terra firma low forest along a stream near Manaus. The same authors found 684 plants (with 7 mature) in a 0.16 ha plot of degraded (by human activity) vegetation along a nearby stream. Kahn (1988) found, in a 1 ha aguajale (as a nearly monospecific stand is called in Peru) in the lower Ucayali River basin, 645 plants ³ 1 m in height, of which 138 were mature. These aguajales or buriti zones are frequent in the Amazon valley, always on humid soils (Peters et al. 1989). In western Amazônia, especially, the buriti zones cover thousands of hectares along the' floodplains.
The buriti
is a predominantly sun species. In natural conditions in the
forest, germination and the first stages of development occur in
the shade. Further development, however, and especially sexual
maturity, requires sun, the more the better. In the low and open
forests along streams, where relatively fewer species are well
adapted, the forest is frequently disturbed by falling branches
and trees, which form gaps of up to 600 m2. In these
gaps, buriti can develop to maturity, attaining its commonly
observed position in the upper canopy of these forests (Castro
& Lescure, in prep.).