Jatata Shadowpalm

The Essence

"Geonoma deversa is the most wide-ranging species in its entire genus, running from Belize and Guatemala south to Brazil and Bolivia, and it is also one of the most economically important. It is not a horticultural palm: Nigel Smith calls it arguably the most commonly used palm in the genus for thatching dwellings. In Bolivia, jatata is the palm most used and most appreciated for roofing, its leaves woven into panels ("paños") of roughly 3 by 0.5 m; a conventional 3-metre panel recorded in Peru takes around 430 to 450 leaves. Reported roof life varies sharply by region and source - 10 to 15 years in Pando, Bolivia, 15 to 20 years elsewhere in Bolivia and over 30 years in one account, against only 3 to 5 years in French Guiana and 1 to 4 years in Colombia where leaves are smoked before use as a conservation measure. The leaves are repeatedly noted as more fire-resistant than other palm thatch. Palmweb's use records document thatching by the Matsigenka in Peru, the Shuar and Huaorani in Ecuador, and Yuracare/Trinitario, Tsimane/Mosetene, Tacana, Ese Ejja and Mestizo peoples in Bolivia, along with combs and improvised hunting spears made from the stem, roots used as brooms, and fruits chewed against bad coughs; the whole palm is burned, the ashes boiled and filtered, to obtain a salt. Four subspecies are accepted - deversa, belizensis, peninsularis of the Osa Peninsula, and quadriflora of the northwest Amazon, distinguished by quadricussate rather than tricussate flower pits. Despite the vast range, Henderson found it variable but not as much as that range would suggest, and delimited the subspecies statistically: Belize and Guatemala material differs from other Central American specimens in 14 measured variables, Osa Peninsula material in 12."

Flores & Ashton (2000, Economic Botany) studied harvesting impact in the Peruvian Amazon and found that cutting only the leaves is a better method than severing the whole crown: both reduce clone size and reproductive output and lower the number of ramets available for the next harvest, but crown-cutting hits the residual stock harder. Net present value of leaf harvesting ranged from 3 to 191 US$ per hectare, standing leaf value only 2 to 26 US$ per hectare, with labour making up 55 to 86 percent of palm thatch revenues. The commercial chain around the leaf is long-standing: Palmweb's use records note Chimane people in Bolivia's Beni Biosphere Reserve working in the jatata trade as employees of traders (Chicchon 1992), and a market for woven paños in Santa Cruz and Trinidad with one beginning in Cochabamba (Hinojosa et al. 2001). Flores & Ashton's own bibliography cites Rioja's 1992 account of "the jatata project" as a pilot experience in Chimane empowerment.