Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Mucajá palm, continued

And here's an even closer look at the inside of the mucajá palm (Acrocomia aculeata) stump. When I think of tree stumps, I visualize a hard heartwood surrounded by decaying bark and sapwood. In the case of the mucajá palm, it's the contrary. The outer ring of the palm is still hard as nails. I remember cutting a live one quite a few years ago. It was so hard, I bent the ax blade and nearly fractured the bones in my arms.

2 comments:

Sandpiper (Lin) said...

Very interesting. I like that little zigzag web when the picture is expanded, too!

Steven Winn Alexander said...

Sandpiper, isn't that web something? It looks like something that might have come in from outer space. Really a strange looking apartment building, the inside of the palm trunk.