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Butia purpurascens is a smallish, relatively slender, endangered species of Butia palm, up to 3-7m tall. It is locally known as palmeira-jataí, coqueiro-de-vassoura, butiá or coquinho-azedo in Portuguese. The Kalunga people call this palm cabeçudo.
It occurs in southern, western and eastern Goiás, western Minas Gerais and northeastern Mato Grosso do Sul, three inland states of southern central Brazil. Up until 2018, many publications state that this species is endemic to southwestern Goiás, but it was collected in Minas Gerais already in 1987, and as of 2018, with further sampling of the flora, its known range has expanded considerably. In 1998 the IUCN reported that a single, but large and quite healthy population occurred near Jataí, largely protected within the confines of a military reservation (41º BIMTZ), but as of 2017 it is known from at least fourteen localities. These are in the municipalities of Aparecida do Rio Doce, Cachoeira Alta, Caçu, Cavalcante, Jataí, Perolândia and Rio Verde in Goiás, and Ituiutaba and Patrocínio in the Triângulo Mineiro area of Minas Gerais. It is particularly prominent around the city of Jataí, with the palms growing at visibly high densities.
In its native palm groves near Jataí the fruit is harvested and gathered from the wild, commonly for use to make locally consumed juices. A liquor is also made from them in some areas by soaking the fruit in spirits or white rum.
Butia archeri · Butia arenicola · Butia campicola · South American jelly palm · Butia catarinensis · Woolly butia palm · Butia lallemantii · Butia matogrossensis · Butia microspadix · South American Jelly Palm · Dwarf Yatay Palm · Butia pubispatha
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Butia purpurascens by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
