Hello Does anybody recognize this nut from Venezuela? It is used in local jewelry and it's name may be chuapos
It's a palm seed; if I remember correctly it's from Bactris gasiapes or one of the Socratea palms. It would be much easier to give you a species if you had a canopy photo from where you picked up the seed; they don't normally travel all that far from the palm that dropped them. That common name doesn't turn up in my books, but it's not terribly surprising since they're for Ecuador. If that seed was fresh, it could be cracked and eaten like coconut; as it is, it's good for jewelry (like tagua, which is a larger seed from Phytelephas palms) or you can plant it to maybe produce a palm tree.
Thank you very much Lorax! I searched the net and found that Socratea exorrhiza seeds match very well. Apparently it is the stilt root palm, but impossible to see in that forest... If I find a warm humid spot I'll try to plant it!
