Wettinia maynensis Species Information

Family: Arecaceae Palm Tree

Common Name: Walte Palm

Scientific Synonymy:
Catoblastus maynensis, Wettinella maynensis, Wettinia illaqueans

Common Synonymy:
Quili muyo

Cold Hardiness Zone: 9b View the UK and US zone maps

Wettinia maynensis Information

A solitary, tall, water-loving, moderately slow growing, monoecious, crownshaft palm. Not known in cultivation and common in the wild. It has a smooth, light-grey trunk, 15 m. (49 ft.) tall, 13 cm. (5 inch) diameter with no obvious leaf scars, and huge segmented, pinnate (feather) leaves, 4 m. (13 ft.) long, 0.9 m. (3 ft.) wide, dark green above and beneath.

An unusual population of this species with clustered stems is known from S Ecuador.

Wettinia maynensis can survive freezing temperatures to about -3.8°C (25°F), but freezing is best avoided. It naturally occurs in wet rainforest or seasonally wet forest in montane locations. In this type of natural environment temperature fluctuations are slight, and this palm prefers a constantly cool or mild climate with little temperature difference between day & night, and Summer & Winter. Under extreme freezing conditions we recommend you keep this palm as dry as possible, and well wrapped up.

Identification

Subcanopy or canopy palm. Stem solitary, 6-15 m tall and 8-15 cm in diameter, smooth. Leaves 3-5 m long; pinnae 30-45 on each side, entire, pendulous, with a rusty pubescence, especially below, the central ones 85-125 cm long and 8-13 cm wide, with 14-25 prominent veins. Inflorescences 3-9 per node; peduncle 15-30 cm long; rachis 1-3 cm long; branches 4-8, to 30 cm long. Male flowers ca. 1 cm long, with 9-18 stamens. Female flowers densely crowded along the branches, 10-15 mm long. Fruits minutely warty and hairy, ca. 2.5-3.5 cm long and 1.5-2 cm in diameter, forming 4-8 sausage-like clusters.

General Information

Well worth trying in the UK with it's moist, mild winters.

E slopes of the Andes from S Colombia to S Peru. Common in Ecuador, especially in the Andean foothill region, at elevations between 500-1600 m. (1640-5200 feet.).

Distribution

Native to: Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

Eastern slopes of the Andes, lowland, premontane and montane rain forest, at 200-1600 m elevation.

Location: Peru (-5.372481°N, -77.958984°E)

Observations

Map may not represent the complete natural distribution. (Markers display observation data).