USES OF ECUADORIAN PALMS

Palms are well known for their extraordinary usefulness to human beings and Ecuadorian palms make no exception to this rule. Based on extensive fieldwork, herbarium specimens and literature Borchsenius et al. 1998 registered more than 150 different uses of 69 palm species in Ecuador belonging to 29 different genera. The most common use-category registered was 'food' (40 spp.), mainly edible mesocarp, endosperm, and palm heart, followed by 'thatch' (23 spp.), 'material for handicraft manufacturing' (19 spp.), 'construction' (17 spp.) and 'medicine' (11 spp.).

Most palm products are non-commercial in the sense that they are consumed by the manufacturer himself without being traded on any market. Nevertheless, these products may be of great economic importance for the individual family as they replace products that would otherwise have to be purchased for money. Larger scale commercial exploitation of palms involve a more limited number of species. So far, 15 native, non-domesticated species belonging to 12 genera have been registered as economically important, in the sense that they are commercialised on a local, national, or international scale. The most important native palm in this sense is Phytelephas aequatorialis. Export of products made from its hard seeds, known as vegetable ivory, now surpass 5 million US$ annually. Other important products include: - canned palm hearts harvested from natural populations of Euterpe oleracea and Prestoea acuminata and lately also from the cultivated Bactris gasipaes;- fibres from Aphandra natalia for production of brooms; - fibres from Astrocaryum standleyanum for hats, hammocks and furniture; - fibres from Astrocaryum chambira for carrying nets and hammocks, sold to tourists by indigenous people in eastern Ecuador; - and stems from Iriartea deltoidea used for furniture and support poles in banana plantations. A number of other products are sold on a minor scale, but may hold a greater potential. They include: - leaves for thatch from Phytelephas aequatorialis and P. tenuicaulis; - young leaves from Ceroxylon alpinum, C. echinulatum, and C. ventricosum and probably other species of that genus used during Easter week ceremonies; - mesocarp oil from Oenocarpus bataua; - edible fruits from Aphandra natalia, Bactris gasipaes and Mauritia flexuosa; - endosperm from Attalea colenda for oil production; - endosperm from Parajubaea cocoides as snack; - and finally endocarps from Parajubaea cocoides and Syagrus sancona used for making trinkets.

Harvest of leaf sheath fibres from Aphandra natalia for prodution of brooms.

Apart from the cultivated and (semi-) domesticated Bactris gasipaes and Parajubaea cocoides, all the mentioned species are mainly exploited in their wild state, i.e., they are rarely planted although the most common ones often are spontaneously growing components of managed agroforestry and silvopastoral systems. Among the introduced and cultivated species the African Oil Palm, Elaeis guineensis, is by far the most important one, followed by Cocos nucifera. Other introduced species are commonly or occasionally commercialised as ornamentals, including Bentinckia nicobarica Becc., Chamerops humilis L., Dypsis lutescens (H. Wendl.) Beentje & Dransf., Jubaea chilensis (Mol.) Baill., Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R. Brown, Phoenix canariensis Chabaud, P. reclinata Jacq., Pritchardia pacifica Seem. & H. Wendl. ex. H. Wendl., Roystonia regia (Kunth) O. F. Cook, Sabal palmetto (Walt.) Lodd. ex. Schult., Trachycarpus fortunei (Hook.) H. Wendl., and Washingtonia robusta H. Wendl.