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Attalea crassispatha
Carossier palm is a single-stemmed palm native only to southwest Haiti, growing up to 20 m tall and considered critically endangered. It is grown mainly for its edible seeds, oil and timber rather than as an ornamental.
Attalea crassispatha is a palm which is endemic to southwest Haiti. The most geographically isolated member of the genus, it is considered a critically endangered species and has been called one of the rarest palms in the Americas.
Very little natural vegetation survives in Haiti. Attalea crassispatha is found in three anthropogenic habitats—field gardens, courtyard gardens, and shrub forest. Field gardens are typically a mixture of annual crops which are farmed for a few years and then converted to pasture. Courtyard gardens are cultivated with perennial crops, usually on more fertile soils. Shrub forests are small patches of secondary forest, often on dry stony areas which are least suitable for agriculture. Joel Timyan and Samuel Reep considered courtyard gardens to have the highest potential for survival and regeneration. At the other extreme, they found only one case of natural regeneration in a field garden.
The seeds of Attalea crassispatha are edible; the flavour is reported to be similar to that of coconut, but it is richer in fats and denser. The nuts are also a good source of cooking oil. The bract is used as a bowl for feeding pigs. The leaves are used for thatch and weaving, but only when the more common fan palms Sabal causiarum and Coccothrinax argentea are unavailable. It is also used as a source of lumber and as a boundary marker between farmers' fields due to its longevity and ability to survive hurricanes.
Cohune Palm · Attalea dubia · Bahia piassaba palm · Babassu Palm · Attalea palm
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Attalea crassispatha by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
