ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of American oil palm. Plants are native and cultivated to a limited extent in South America; the oil is used for soap-making, food, and lamp fuel. Its main value lies in its slow-growing, procumbent trunk and high percent of parthenocarpic fruits, and for its hybridizing potential with Elaeis guineensis. American oil palm is better for margarine-making than the African oil palm, because the former has a low level of free fatty acids and a high melting point. When this palm is cultivated, seeds are planted in seedbeds and the seedlings transplanted into the field when about 12 to 18 months old. Fruits are selected from special mother plants, often after pollination with pollen of a selected male palm. Seeds may be germinated in a germinator and the seedlings grown in a pre-nursery, and later in a nursery.
