I just got back from a visit to Isla Palenque. (Normally I work out of Amble Resorts’ Chicago corporate office, so you can imagine how excited I was to take a break from winter weather and take off for sunny Panama!) This was my 4th trip to the island, but I’d never really had a chance to explore it thoroughly before. The new roads recently created by the construction crew made it easy to get to some of the island spots that were previously only accessible to the more advanced hikers among us. But it’s a different story now! Not only are their roads, but a Toyota 4-Runner for me to tear through the jungle in, making my co-workers car sick, I’m sure.
My next few posts will feature a few snapshots from my trip. This is episode one: Oil Palms. Dozens of them make a shady lane through the island’s mid-section alongside the lagoons, growing easily 18 feet high. My head came to about halfway up this photo below. And there were taller fronds I couldn’t get into frame.
I looked them up in my Princeton Field guide: Trees of Panama and Costa Rica, and found their botanical name is Elaeis olefera, but they’re also known as coroze, palma aceitera, corozo colorado, and the American oil palm.
Historians believe there were people living in this area as long as 5,000 years ago, cultivating palms for oil and wine to trade with other tribes. I never thought about how oil comes out of palms, but last week I saw for myself the bright, oily fruit these palms produce. Deep purple/black, bright red/orange, or sunny yellow, these prolific clusters of hard berries seem to burst surprisingly out of the frond crown of the palm tree. I tried biting one, but it was too hard to break with my teeth, although it did leave a not-unpleasant oily taste on my tongue.
Wikipedia’s article on oil palms says nothing of their cultivation in the Western Hemisphere, and only talks about their African roots, but believe me they are here, and according to the archeologists they have been here for millennia.
One interesting item from Wikipedia’s article: each fruit cluster is supposed to have an “illustrious” seed called a sbatmi that was prized for its mythic healing properties. It’s supposed to look like a black pearl. They say that it’s still kept as a charm or talisman, and that some celebrities wear them. If I’d known that when I was there I would have searched for one! Next time…
Apparently the oil palm fruits are harvested, then boiled so their moisture evaporates, and then what remains is pressed to create palm oil. The kernels of each fruit are pressed as well to make palm kernel oil. No one is harvesting the fruits on Isla Palenque, though. They are simply remnants from a long past civilization.
Orange Oil Palm Fruits
Black Oil Palm Fruits
Yellow Oil Palm Fruits
How interesting! As a student of archaeology, this fascinates me. The Monagrillo culture of Panama used the Oil Palm thousands of years ago! The arboricultural history of the tree is unique since just about every part of it can be used in some way. For instance, palm oil is very high in vitamin A and used in several ways, including the production of palm oil biodiesel fuel. However, in Colombia, this agroindustry is negatively impacting the land and violently displacing small communities. It is a shame that something which could be positive for us and our environment is actually being carried out in a destructive manner. It’s wonderful to see the Oil Palm thriving and happy on Isla Palenque!