THE PEJIBAYE 



A NEGLECTED FOOD-PLANT OF 



TROPICAL AMERICA 



Wilson Popexoe 

 Agricultural Explorer, Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, U. S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture 

 and 

 Oton Jimenez, Ph.G. 

 San Jose de Costa Rica 



IT IS, perhaps, permissible to char- 

 acterize the pejibaye or chontaduro 

 as a tropical American counterpart 

 of the Oriental date palm. Both 

 species are capable, almost unaided, of 

 supporting life, as proved by Arab 

 tribes which utilize the date as their 

 principal food, and by the aborigines 

 of southern Costa Rica and certain 

 regions of northern South America, 

 who subsist almost exclusively, during 

 part of each year, upon pejibayes. 

 There is, however, this noteworthy 

 difference between the two fruits: 

 sugar is the principal constituent of 

 the date, while starch is the most 

 important nutritive element in the 

 pejibaye. 



In Costa Rica the pejibaye has been 

 cultivated by the Indians, principally 

 those of Talamanca and the Atlantic 

 slope, since remote antiquity. Evi- 

 dences of the important role played by 

 this plant in the economic life of the 

 early Costa Ricans are to be found in 

 the accounts of the Spanish historians. 

 In the lowlands of Colombia, Vene- 

 zuela, and Ecuador it forms a staple 

 foodstuff of numerous aboriginal tribes. 

 The Jibara Indians of Ecuador hold 

 the fruit in such esteem that the ripen- 

 ing season is celel^rated annually by a 

 feast of several days' duration. 



It seems remarkable, therefore, that 

 this palm, which not tnily attains great 

 economic importance throughout a 

 considerable portion of tropical Amer- 

 ica at the present day, but whose value 



was recognized by Europeans in the 

 first years of American colonization, 

 should not have become widely distri- 

 buted. Undoubtedly it can be grown 

 successfully in many parts of the 

 tropics, yet its cultivation, as an 

 economic plant, is now limited to that 

 region which lies between the Lake of 

 Nicaragua on the north and Ecuador 

 on the south. 



ORIGIN AND NOMENCLATURE 



Regarding the native home of the 

 species, Henri Pittier (Plantas Usuales 

 de Costa Rica) says: "The Indians have 

 cultivated it since a remote day, and 

 it is not known as a wild plant; wher- 

 ever it is found isolated, it may be 

 considered to mark the spot of a former 

 habitation." This refers, of course, to 

 Costa Rica. In Panama it has the 

 appearance of an indigenous species, 

 growing wild commonly in the forest, 

 and to our personal knowledge the 

 same is true of Colombia and Ecuador. 

 In the latter country it is called 

 chontaduro and chojitaruru, a term 

 taken from the Quichua language; in 

 Colombia the name is gachipaes, cachi- 

 paes, or commonly cachipay; while in 

 Venezuela it is known as pirijao 

 (Carlos Cuervo Marquez: Tratado 

 Elemental de Botanica). Botanically 

 the species is usually listed in Costa 

 Rica as Giiilielma utilis Oerst. Bactris 

 utilis is a synonym. While we cannot 

 be certain, we believe the plant found 

 in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador, 



Note. — Lest someone should be led to discount the enthusiasm of the agricultural explorer, 

 (who declares the pejibaye is as delicate and delicious as the chestnut) with the remark that "he 

 was probably very hungry," I cannot refrain from adding this note to say that Mrs. Hamilton Rice 

 who accompanied Dr. Rice on his expeditions into the wilds of Colombia, told me that in her 

 opinion it was one of the most delicious of all the tropic .il fruits with which she became acquainted 

 in South .America. — David Kaihchii.d. 



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