Brazil nuts, Pupunha, Varzea, C46

[amazondk]

Here are a few shots from my trip over to Itacoatiara this week.  The city is 260 kms by road from Manaus and at about KM 200 there is a very large Brazil nut tree plantation.  The owners have planted around 1 million trees with many of them being grafted for better fruit production.  They are experimenting with plantation trees for lumber as well as fruit.  The wood of the Brazil nut is of excellent quality.  In order to protect this important element of the forest harvesting Brazil Nut trees is not permitted.  But, plantation trees are ok.  I think there is a lot of potential in our region for this tree.  It grows fast, tall, and aside from wood produces great nuts.  In the native forest the Brazil nut is a key element of the ecosystem.  It provides food for many mammals and birds.   The shell of the gourd is extremely hard and dense.  To open it the gourd has to hit with a machete in a specific place.  Aside from the cotia (agouti) which is the prime consumer parrots and macaws also consume the nuts.  It is common for monkeys to wait for the agouti or cotia to open the gourd and then rob the nuts.

dk

All the trees are Brazil nuts

Trees are planted densily in the begining and thinned as the plantation develops.  

Brazil nut gourds waiting to be opened.  The nuts are later dried down to a moisture content of 8 percent for sale to Southern Brazil and export.

[amazondk]

The plantation also produces spineless pupunha, bactris gasipaes seeds for shipment to Sao Paulo for use as palm heart plantations.

Seed cleaning.

Cleaned and dried seeds about ready to packaged and shipped.  I got a bag to germinate at home.

[amazondk]

A scene from the Varzea

Some typical Varzea vegetation

And, an old abandoned C46 at the Itacoatiara airport.  The city has an airport but no regular flights except the mail run.  I thought of Bo when I saw this old machine left to rot in the forest.

[bgl]

Don,

Thanks a lot for alerting me to this. I had a busy day today, and didn't have time to check as much as I wanted to on the Forum!

That C-46 has certainly seen happier days, and yes, it brings back memories. Transair Sweden, which I worked for back in the 1960s, actually had the largest C-46 fleet outside of the USA (they had 11 at one time), and I flew in C-46s on plenty of occasions. Many times I was able to sit up in cockpit, which was always fun for a 17-18 year old!!

The C-46 in the photo above is s/n 26508. It was delivered to USAAF in May 1943 as 41-12381 and actually in use until April 1960 when it was sold to L.B. Smith Aircraft Corp. in Miami, a major C-46 dealer. They modified it to civil standards and sold it Navegaçao Aerea Brasileira as PP-NMH on 20 DEC 1960. That airline was merged into Loide on 24 OCT 1961, only to be merged into VASP on 15 JAN 1962! Then sold to its final operator, SAVA, on 17 JUN 1968, and the Certificate of Airworthiness expired on 30 APR 1976. And it's been retired at Itacoatiara airport ever since - more than 30 years. And it certainly looks like it!

Thanks for the update!

Bo-Göran

[Zac in NC]

Nice shots Don. I had heard somewhere that Brazil Nuts did not fruit in cultivation, but only in a forest condition. Does the grafting cause them to fruit earlier?

Zac

[Eric Hawaii]

How long does it take for a Brazil Nut tree to reach full height (they get like 200 feet tall, don't they?)?  The fastest-growing tree in the world is Albizia falcatara (did i spell that right?), which is common here in Hawaii, and it grows to be a giant 150-foot high with a canopy spreading at least that wide too.  But its wood is so weak (from growing so fast, I suppose) that its only good for making paper pulp.  But you'd never guess it from looking at the tree because it's so massive.  Brazil Nut would never naturalize in Hawaii because there's nothing here that would eat the fruit.  I haven't even seen one at a botanical gardens.  But the related Cannonball Tree can be seen in some places.

[Eric Hawaii]

Hey, Don, do you have any pics of Swietenia macrophylla (Honduran Mahogany)?  That one impresses me too.  Giant tropical rainforest trees fascinate me.  I wish there was an online forum for them like this palmtalk forum.

[amazondk]

Zac,

I am not sure exactly what the difference is of a tree planted as seed or a grafted one, but I do not believe it is too great.  The control of the variety is the main reason they graft the trees in the picture. They are selected for bigger fruit pods.  From what I know Brazil trees fruit just fine in plantations and start to bear fruit around 7 years.

Eric,

I don't know as to full height.  But, most trees in the forest here can reach a pretty much mature size in around 25 years or so.  That is if they have enough sunlight and optimum conditions.  Many trees with slender trunks in the forest are quite old, they just have never had enough light to develop fully.  When Brazil nuts are planted they are space 4 x 4 meters.  They are thinned as they grow.  The density of planting forces the trees up.  The tree can reach 50 cms in diameter at the chest with clean trunk of around 20 meters at 20 years.  From what I understand most large forest trees here do their major growth in the first 25 to 30 years.  From that time on they do not grow too fast.  I would say most Brazil nut trees obtain a height of from 120 to 150 feet, that is to the top branches.  

As to Big Leaf Mahoganny, Swietenia macrophylla, I don't have any pictures of any big trees.  They are not native to our part of Amazonia.  There are a lot of small one planted around town though in public areas such as medians etc.  There is a problem with plantation or domestically grown trees though due to a moth that attacks the terminal bud.  This limits the height that the tree can grow with free trunk.  One way around this, at least partially, is to plant in association with other trees such as Inga. The moth attacks the inga until the mahoganny outgrows it at about 8 meters.  

The grow to be magnificant trees for sure.  I have seen planks of mahoganny at least 1.5 meters in width.

[amazondk]

Here is a picture I took yesterday while driving up to Boa Vista, Roraima, at trip of 775 kms over not too great roads.  The hillside has some brazil nut trees which I think are probably around 12 to 15 years old, and some nice Euterpe and Oenopcarpus maipora.  The 250 km trip through the indian reservation is sort of interesting, you always see bare breasted young indian maidens walking by the side of the road.  And, an occaisionally indian hunter with bow and arrow in hand.  So, you don't stop to see the maidens as they may put an arrow in you.

dk

[Eric Hawaii]

Thanks, Don!  By the way, is inga the tree that flowers all purple seasonally?  I remember that from the atlantic rainforest around Rio.  I'm also curious what you know about shade trees most commonly planted in Brazilian cities and parks.  We could use some more ideas out here.  The default tree in Hawaii is monkeypod, and although it is indeed a nice shade tree, it gets boring seeing nothing but.  I remember some nice leguminous species planted on streets in Rio, but i never found out what they were.

[amazondk]

Eric,

I think you are remembering the Tibouchina called quaresmeira locally.  The inga has small white flowers and produces a long seed pod which is eaten a lot around here.  Here is a link to a site that might have some information for you.  Arvores do Brasil

dk