Economic Botany Collections

Catalogue number:

38648

Botanical classification:

PALMAE Iriartea exorrhiza

Common name(s):

Geographical description:

Colombia, Vaupes River

Collector number:

Collection date:

Donor:

Spruce, Richard

Donation date:

00/00/1851

Dimensions (cm):

Length:

Width:

Depth:

Diameter:

150.0

1.2

Specimen label:

Curabi or poisoned arrows of the Maupe Indians. The shaft is made of the flower spike of G. sacchariodes and the heads of Paxiuba Iriartea exorrhiza Mart.

Museum entry book 1847-1855, pp. 77-78:

Growing in large beds on the Itah de mari- mari- luba, in the Amazon, between Santarem and Obidos. The whole of this was over 20 ft high and it was cut off from the ground The five pairs of ropes which hold it down to the earth would seem to be scarcely needed in the dry season, but in the wet season when 5 to 15 feet of its stem are under water and the river sweeps along with great fury it is obvious that without their stay, the plant must speedily be uprooted. The length here sent is 7 ft 8 inches. Above this was the fiche, the naked stalk of the panicle. Lastly at the summit was the noble mane like panicle, clad with myriads of purple and silver flowers

Richard Spruce's Plantae Amazonicae. Domestic Uses. (1855), p. 46:

This exceedingly handsome grass is most abundant in the Amazon. It is found on Rio Negro near every village where Indians themselves consider it has been planted. I have never seen it truly wild. On Amazon from Rio Negro upwards one scarcely ever loses sight of it, long broad strips often unmined with any other plant. Its aspect is quite that of a bed of reeds on a gigantic scale. Its usual height is 15-20 ft but on upper Marañon in places where it is mixed with trees which at once drew it up and prevented it being overborne by waters in flood-time, I have seen stems 30ft which thickness can be that of man's ankle. When it grows it puts forth from lowest joints buttresses which barely exist on plants of ordinary stature. The use for which this grass is chiefly known is that in its long smooth light and at same time elastic peduncle the Indian finds best material for his arrow. By simply splitting in the middle these peduncles can be framed into very neat bird cages of stout cuticle, fine hair -combs are made by Indians on Uaupés. The stems are perhaps more universally used in the Province of Mayna than any other vegetation product. The walls of the Indians houses, the ceilings, the stages on which he dries his fishes and other articles are simply stems of Caña Brava. With this he fastens up his mosquito net and the white man is glad to follow his example and also fence his garden and make hen coops. For common purposes it is used in its rough state with persistent leaf sheath still on, but for ceilings and other uses in interiors of houses the sheaths are stripped. As I came up Nacuta my Indians each provided himself with a 12ft long stem of caña brava which served to propel the canoe whenever water was shallow enough more quickly than oars do. Also manufactured into durable hats.