Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Mumbaca fruits

The mumbaca palm is native of the Santarém region and it is one of those palms that survive the long dry seasons without any problems. This image of mumbaca fruit was taken this morning right next to the museum at Bosque Santa Lúcia. Notice how the peeling folds back from the fruit in a star-like formation. It's no coincidence that the genus of this palm is Astrocaryum. The full scientific name is Astrocaryum gynacanthum.
You can see that some smart monkey (probably a silvery marmoset) has eaten some of the pulp away from the nut. The "meat" inside the nut tastes very much like coconut. I have yet to figure out how the monkeys manage to get into this palm for a feed. Read the previous post to see what I mean.

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