Friday, June 25, 2010

Drift seed- Prickly Palm

I wasn't sure what these were the first time I found them. I was unsure whether they were a type of drift bean or drift seed. One was polished and shiny while the other was not. "Shiny" was rounded but "Dull" was not.They both had three weird holes on their sides. I've never seen seeds with three holes on the side though. Maybe they are made of plastic and the holes were for lines, like a float. "Dull" had a pointy top crown though that made it look organic. Plus, if they were manufactured then they would have been molded into the same side.

After a little more research, I found these out to be nuts from the prickly palm (Acrocromia sp.). The common name is the corozo palm. Imagine a coconut palm with crazy long spines on the trunk! There isn't a consesus as to what species they are, so I will just leave the name as that. They are apparently drift seeds from tropical Americas and the Carribeans that drift their way around the Gulf of Mexico.
I've only found 3 so far. I don' tthink the prickly palm exists here or on Guam. I wonder if they really drifted from as far away as Central America?The corozo palm nut polishes quite nicely and people in Central America still use them as ornamental beads. I don't think we can find enough around to be of that use.

Ti napu.

The Beachcomber

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

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klevahn@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

In Grenada we call it Gou Gou. On the tree it has a fruity coating that is encased in a hard, thin, yellow shell. Once the shell is removed it is sucked until all the fruity coating is dissolved then the inner hard shell is broken to reveal a nut on the inside which is then eaten as well.

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