This palm tree almost went extinct. Now its super-berries are serving to to reserve it.
But the juçara berry, which grows on a palm tree of the same name, is offering a lot more than antioxidants — it’s helping to restore Brazil’s devastated Atlantic Forest.
A lush tropical forest that stretched more than 2,500 miles along Brazil’s coastline, and inland to Paraguay and Argentina, the Atlantic Forest once covered 12% of Brazil’s land area. But in the 16th century, Portuguese colonizers began replacing forest with sugar cane, and later, coffee plantations. Since then, agriculture and urban expansion have accelerated deforestation and today, just 7% of the original forest remains.
The juçara palm is threatened not only by deforestation, but also by its own tastiness. The tree’s palm heart — a soft fruit in the trunk — is a nutritious delicacy. Most palms can regrow from their shoots but the juçara cannot, so when the palm heart is removed, the tree dies.
Historically, indigenous communities used the tree for food and timber, but small-scale harvesting of this…
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