Cyclantaceae

Carludovica drudei Mast.

Carludovica drudei

(Hidayat, 2017)

Classification

Divisio: Tracheophyta

Ordo: Pandanales

Family: Carludovica

Genus: Carludovica drudei

(Wikimedia, 2019)

Common Name

Panama

Paca, Chidra, Estococa (Costa Rica)

Carludovica speciosa Linden (1877)

Carludovica tabascana Matuda (1952)

(Monaco Nature, 2019)

Description

Large, clustering, acaulescent, and caespitose (growing in tufts or clumps), 2-3 m tall. Petioles to 2.5 m long, terete, vaginate only near base; blades to 1.8 m wide, palmately and unequally 4-lobed, the lobes to 75 cm long, 35-60 cm wide at apex, with 9-16 teeth per lobe, the teeth 5-13 cm long, glabrous and shiny above, dull below; juvenile leaves entire, the apex, V-shaped, becoming 4-lobed, the lateral lobes more deeply divided. Peduncles 40-50 cm long; spathes 4, congested immediately below spadix; spadix narrowly cylindrical, 11-12 cm long, 1.5 cm thick in flower, to 22 cm long and 4.5 cm thick in fruit; staminate and pistillate flowers alternating spirally on spadix; staminate flowers in clusters of 4, lack­ing perianth, the stamens numerous, closely congested, obscuring all of pistillate flower but the staminodium, falling within a few days after anthesis; pistillate flowers sunken into fleshy axis of spadix; sepals 4, 5-6 mm long in flower, distinctly surpassing length of stigmas (to 8 mm long in fruit); staminodium slender, flattened, very long and showy, white, falling soon after anthesis; stigmas 4, laterally compressed; fruiting spadices rupturing at ma­turity, beginning at apex, to expose bright orange matrix with embedded fruits. Fruits oblong to rounded, about 10 mm long, 6-8 mm broad; seeds numerous, ± ovoid, about 2 mm long, flattened (Palmpedia, 2016).

Distribution

Carludovica drudei in Brief Garden, Bentota, Sri Lanka
(Philippe, 2016)

Carludovica drudei is found in Central America, Peru and Colombia. Occasional, in the forest,  usually along streams, pos­sibly preferring steep banks. Flowers in June. The fruits mature from July to October. Distinguished by having the leaf lobes toothed much less than half way to the base. Lowland forests in Mexico (Chiapas and the Yucatan Peninsula), Costa Rica, Panama, and possibly Colombia. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest, on both slopes in the Canal Zone and in Chiriqui and Darien (Palmpedia, 2016).

Benefit

Extract used as a hallocinogenic drink

Location at UPI

Zone 1 of Botanical Garden UPI

Other Pict.

Carludovica drudei, Costa Rica
(Aguilar, 2016)

Carludovica drudei

(Hidayat, 2017)

Carludovica drudei

(Aguilar, 2016)