This medium-sized (3 m.) palm of the primary forest supplies 

 leaves for wrapping food; the seeds provide material for beads. 



Geonoma sp. 



Collect.: Davis & Yost 1015 



Waorani Informant: Geque (m). Downriver dialect: n.v. ooniaw^ 



This palm is a 4-meter treelct of the primary rain forest. It is 

 used to improvise hunting and war spears. Before the arrival of 

 metal tools that could cut chonta {Bactris Gasipaes), spears were 

 fashioned from this palm exclusively. 



JesseniaBataua(Mart.) Burr, in Notzbl. 10(1928)300. 



Collect.: Davis & Yost 1004. 



Waorani Informant: Geque (m). Downriver dialect: n,\. petow^ 



This palm which is a common tree (30 m. tall) of the primary 

 forest is one of the most important Waorani plants. The leaves 

 provide thatch; the fibrous leaf bases are broken up and used to 

 clean the bore of blowguns, to start fires and to make flares; the 

 fruit, if boiled, turns very hard, but upon gentle warming, pro- 

 vides a delicious, oily paste; the adventitious roots are employed 

 medicinally to treat worms, diarrhea, headaches and stomach 



ailments. 



As with most of the palms, the Waorani used derived terms to 

 refer to the various plant parts. The fruits 'dvt petomo, the leaves 

 pctoha, the fibrous leaf bases petocoo and the adventitious roots 

 peto. The mature tree is known as/?^rovt'^. 



In Colombia, this species is an important medicine. In the 

 eastern llanos, the oil of the fruit has been used for forty years to 

 treat tuberculosis and other pulmonary ailments. It is also 

 esteemed in treating bronchial problems and colds and may be 

 taken orally or injected (Garcia-Barriga 1974, Perez Arbelaez 

 1956). In the Darien, Panama, the oil is considered an anodyne 



(Duke 1968). 



Maximiliana aff. Maripa (Correa) Drude in Martins, Fl. Bras. 3, 



pt. 2(1882)452. 

 Collect.: Davis & Yost 963. 

 Waorani Informant: Geque (m). Downriver dialect: n.v. oompa 



174 



