Jubaea chilensis

Plant Characteristics

Habit		palm-cycad
Lifespan:	⌛	perennial

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Features:	✓	foliage

Scientific Names

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Jubaea chilensis (Chilean Wine Palm) is the sole extant species in the genus Jubaea in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to southwestern South America, where it is endemic to a small area of central Chile, between 32°S and 35°S in southern Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and northern Maule regions. It was long assumed that the extinct palm tree of Easter Island belonged to this genus too, but it is distinct and now placed in its own genus, Paschalococos.

It is a palm reaching heights of 25 m ft with a trunk up to 1.3 m ft in diameter at the base, often thicker higher up, and with smooth bark. The 3 - 5 m leaves are pinnate. The largest individual specimen of indoor plant in the world is the Jubaea chilensis at Kew, England.

The tree also produces small round fruits that are about 2 - 3 cm in diameter. The fruit has a very hard outer shell and has a whitish meat on the inside. The fresh nuts are normally sold in the areas where the palms grow during the fruiting season.^{[citation needed]}

The common name refers to the past use of the sap from the trunk of this palm to produce a fermented beverage. The sap is also boiled down into a syrup and sold locally as miel de palma.

ExpandRead about Jubaea chilensis in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Jubaea spectabilis, HBK. height 40-60 ft. but much lower in cult.: lvs. 6-12 ft. long. —The southernmost American palm. "It is one of the hardiest palms," says Franceschi, "and can endure drought and many degrees of cold. If liberally treated, it makes a large tree in a few years." A full-sized trunk yields about 90 gallons of sugary sap, which is boiled by the Chileans and called "Miel de Palma" or palm honey, which is extensively used on ships and hotels on the west coast of S. Amer. There is some danger of the species being exterminated in Chile. The frs. look like diminutive coconuts, and are called Coquitos, or by the trade "monkey's coconuts." In Europe, it is cult, under glass, and also used for subtropical bedding. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

It needs mild winters, but will tolerate frosts down to about -15 °C °F as well as relatively cool summers, making it one of the hardiest of pinnate-leaved palms; this is because it grows up to 1400 m ft above sea level in its natural habitat. In the wild, the tree lives almost exclusively on the steep slopes of ravines.

Gallery

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  World-record Jubaea at Kew

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  photo 1

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  photo 2

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  photo 3

References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Jubaea chilensis. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
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