CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF SOUTHWEST GUATEMALA—McBRYDE 145 
APPENDIX 3 
USEFUL PLANTS OF THE 
GUATEMALA PACIFIC REGION 
PALMS 
COHUNE (COROZO) 
The uses to which the tall and stately cohune* (pl. 2, a) 
palm (Orbignya cohune) is put are manifold. Particularly 
valued are the extraordinarily large, pinnate leaves, com- 
monly 30 feet long and 6 feet wide, which are much em- 
ployed for roofing throughout the Lowlands (see map 14). 
Leaf segments entire serve for making sopladores (fire fans) 
in various coast towns, particularly San Sebastian Retalhuleu. 
The chief industry of that town, however, one of the few 
craft centers in the Lowlands, is the making of suyacales 
(rectangular raincapes) of de-veined leaf segments (see 
p. 67, pl. 2, b, c, map 17), in quantities sufficient to supply 
the needs of all of Southwest Guatemala. Bunches of 
leaf-segment veins are fashioned into stiff brooms. The 
young bud, or heart (palmito), called also the “cabbage,” is 
eaten, raw, roasted, or boiled, and it is reported that a strong 
intoxicant is surreptitiously allowed to ferment in the cavity 
from which the bud has been cut, and into which panela, 
or brown sugar, is put. Fermentation is said to occur thus 
within 5 days, but the only first-hand information I obtained 
on this was with reference to Mexico. The coyol palm is 
more significant for this purpose, and it may be that the two 
were confused by the informant; the common nomenclature 
itself is sometimes misleading (see Standley, 1920-26, p. 83). 
The yellow, branched, musty-smelling and funguslike 
staminate inflorescence in its long (up to 6 feet), ribbed, 
spindle-shaped spathe** is a major trade item marketed in 
the Highlands, especially at Quezaltenango, on a large scale 
for Palm Sunday to decorate churches for fiestas (pl. 39, f). 
The husk and flesh of the fruit are important cattle food, 
animals often being fed the fruit so as to clean off the seed. 
The flesh is eaten, being fibrous like a mango, and rather 
acid, with a black walnut flavor. The seed kernel is rich in 
fat (as high as 50 percent), and Ladinos in the Lowlands, as 
at Mazatenango, use it for making oils, soaps, and confec- 
tions. The thick, hard, cocolike shell of the seed (2-3 inches 
long) is cracked only with difficulty, however, and this has 
hampered attempts to produce oil on a commercial scale for 
export. The tough shells are said to make excellent buttons, 
and the Indians make small tobacco pipes by cutting an end 
off of the seeds and using them as bowls. The woody trunk 
237Its various names are, besides cohune, corozo and manaco (in 
places along the Pacific Lowlands as at Santo Domingo Suchitepequez; 
said usually to apply only to the leaves). Brigham recorded manaco 
for the young, trunkless stage, corozo for the mature tree (Brigham, 
1887, p. 329). 
238 Oviedo described the use of corozo spathes as half-bushel (or half 
hundredweight, “media hanega’’) measures for corn in the West Indies. 
He said that several inhabitants of Salvatierra de la Savana had them. 
Sometimes they were so large that they had to be “diminished” in order 
to measure a half “hanega”’ (fanega) according to Royal standards. 
Such corozo spathe measures were called manahuecas. These lasted, 
according to Oviedo, for 2 or 3 years, were very tough, and would not 
break, even when dropped from a high place (Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 1, 
p. 333). 
654162—47——-11 
is put to various uses, as for firewood and construction pur- 
poses. Standley (1920-26, p. 83) mentions a corresponding 
usefulness of the cohune in Mexico, where he characterizes 
it as “one of the most important palms economically.” A 
further use, in Costa Rica, is the making of hats from the 
leaves. Standley (1930, p. 217) quotes Gann to the effect 
that Indians of British Honduras make oil for lighting and 
cooking, also “wine from the trunks”.*” 
Because of the widespread utility of the trees, they bring 
a good price, and consequently they have been heavily cut 
out in many sections. In Santo Domingo Suchitepequez, I 
found that natives purchase leaves from the landowners, cut- 
ting them themselves, for 1 cent each. At San Sebastian 
Retalhuleu, where the demand is greater because of their 
needs in making raincapes, Indians pay 50 cents for a cargo 
of about 100 pounds (average 25 leaves ?), and for a good 
supply they must go as far as Las Cruces (12 miles) and 
Caballo Blanco (17 miles). Though the palm occurs, in re- 
duced size, as high in elevation as 850 m. (2,789 ft., Palmar), 
it grows best below 650 m. (2,132 ft.), and because of the 
cutting out of it in the more populous upper portions of 
this zone, the most luxuriant stands today are apparently 
confined to the outer Lowlands, below about 100 to 150 m. 
elevation (328 and 492 ft.; see pl. 2, a). I found no evidence 
of the cohune ever being planted by man. 
coco 
The coco (Cocos nucifera, upper limit about 875 m.) is of 
economic significance for food, drink, and fiber, the latter 
having given rise to a budding Ladino industry in the fashion- 
ing of bright-colored mats and other souvenirs at San 
Sebastian Retalhuleu. 
COYOL 
Coyol palms (Acrocomia mexicana) bear well to 1,700 m. 
(5,577 ft.) elevation. The numerous fruits are eaten, raw or 
cooked, and the flowers are used for decorating at religious 
fiestas. 
The former species name vinifera derives from the im- 
portance of the tree in making a mild fermented drink from 
the trunk sap, a practice which dates apparently from pre- 
Columbian time (see Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 1, p. 334), but 
which is carried on less extensively today. This is probably 
due to governmental monopoly and restrictions on all alco- 
holic beverages. Standley calls it “Mexican wine palm,” 
however. 
Henry Bruman, who has made a survey of native intoxi- 
cants in Mexico and Central America,*” has found reference 
to the coyol palm, as follows: 
29 Several uses of corozo are described by Oviedo, who calls it 
manaca. These include food (flesh of the fruit), both “Indians and 
even Christians” (it was supposed to turn them yellow as in the flesh 
of pigs), feed for pigs, and thatch (Oviedo, 1851-55, vol. 1, p. 333). 
240 Bruman’s Ph. D. thesis (Ms. 1940), as yet unpublished, is in the 
University of California Library. 
