Plant · P-516

Peach Palm

Bactris gasipaes

Peach Palm is a tropical staple crop grown for a starchy, oily fruit rather than a sugary one - inedible raw, it has to be boiled in salted water before it turns floury, high in carbohydrate, protein and beta-carotene. A single trunk can bear two crops a year for fifty to seventy-five years, and the growing tip is also cut as palm heart, though taking it kills that trunk. Sharp black spines ring the stems, a real hazard at harvest, but spineless cultivars exist for wherever the palm needs regular handling.