Chelyocarpus ulei

Big Island, Hawaii.

Chelyocarpus
(kee-lih-oh-KAR-pus)
ulei (oo-leh')

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, FL.

Scientific Classification

Genus:	Chelyocarpus (kee-lih-oh-KAR-pus)
Species:	ulei (oo-leh')

Synonyms

None set.

Native Continent

America

Morphology

Habit:	Solitary
Leaf type:	Costa palmate

Culture

Survivability index

Common names

None.

Habitat and Distribution

Brazil North, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. W Amazon region in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil, found in rainforests usually below 500 m elevation.

Description

Chelyocarpus ulei is a single-stemmed palm, with fan-shaped leaves. The stem is 1 to 8 metres (3 ft 3.4 in to 26 ft 3.0 in) tall, and 4 to 7 centimetres (1.6 to 2.8 in) in diameter. Trunk type: Solitary. With palmate leaves up to 1.6 metres (5 feet) across, at the end of a 1-1.5 metre (3-4.5 feet) petiole. The leaves are deeply split, and silvery white underneath. Leaf detail: Palmately compound, with relatively even segmented divisions, erect leaves.

Understorey palm. Stem solitary, erect, to 5 m tall, 6-8 cm in diameter. Leaves with petiole 1-1.5 m long; blade palmate 1.2-1.6 m in diameter, silverish white below, deeply split into 8-10 segments, that in their turn are partially split for up to half their length into one-ribbed teeth. Inflorescences 60-100 cm long, the basal part covered with bracts with a greyish white waxy tomentum. Flowers 3-5 mm long, first cream coloured, then purplish. Fruits 2-3 cm in diameter, light brown, with corky-warty surface. Editing by edric. (Borchsenius, F. 1998)

The only native Ecuadorian representative of the Coryphoid palm subfamily. (Borchsenius, F. 1998)

Culture

Requirements: Filtered light when young, full sun when mature, consistently moist soil, well drained position. Warm, sheltered and moist. Tropical in its requirements. Rare in cultivation.