Attalea (palm) - Habitat and Ecology

Habitat and Ecology

Attalea includes both large trees and small acaulescent palms which occupy a number of different ecological niches. Dense stands of some of the larger species are conspicuous elements on the landscape, while smaller species are found in both in the forest understorey and in savannas.

Disturbance has been implicated in the formation of vegetation dominated by large Attalea species. In seasonally dry Amazonian forests the density of large adult A. maripa palms was correlated with canopy openness; the species also dominates savannas formed by repeated forest fires in Trinidad and Tobago. Attalea speciosa forms pure stands in many parts of Brazil where natural forest vegetation has been cleared. Similarly, stands of A. funifera in Bahia, Brazil (which are cultivated for piassava fibre) are managed using fire—the seedlings survive cutting and burning, and are able to dominate burned forest patches.

The fruit are dispersed by animals; fruit which are not dispersed frequently suffer seed predation by bruchid beetles. Certain species of Attalea have been mentioned as examples of "anachronistic" species which are adapted for dispersal by now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna. On Maracá Island, Roraima, in the Brazilian Amazon, Attalea maripa fruit were consumed by tapirs, collared peccaries, deer and primates. Rodents, including agoutis, fed upon the fruit and, as the fruit availability declined, they fed on the seeds. Other dispersers of Attalea fruit include Crested Caracaras which consume the fruit and disperse the seeds of A. phalerata in the Brazilian Pantanal.