Varieties that are producing fruits are generally thorny. There are many varieties of Bactris gasipaes. The seed is embedded in a dark endocarp centrally located in the flesh of the fruit ( Mora-Urpi et al., 1997). The fruit is a drupe, usually shiny orange, red or yellow in colour and ovoid in shape, about 2-7 cm long x 2-8 cm wide and weighs 4-186 g. The fruits develop on bunches that can be up to 20kg. Female flowers are usually yellow, or rarely green, larger than male flowers (3-13 mm long x 4-12 mm wide). Male flowers are cream-light yellow, small (2-6 mm long and 2-6 mm wide). The monoecious female flowers develop irregularly among male flowers. The peduncle is 10-17 cm long and rarely has spines. The spatheвЂ™s internal surface is cream or light yellow. The spathe is 51-126 cm long, 6-18 cm wide, 2-15 mm thick and weighs 1-6 kg. Peach palm inflorescences develop in the axil of the leaves. The leaflets are 58-115 cm long, 3-6 cm wide, and linear-lanceolate in shape. The leaflets are numerous (up to 400) and may be armed on their midribs and margins. The stems have 10-30 petiolated, dropping, pinnate leaves, 1.8 to 4 m in length. The tree has an adventitious root system that forms a thick mat that may extend 4-5 m around the plant and can go as deep as 2 m in the soil.

The suckers are managed for heart-of-palm production. Peach palms produce suckers (1-12) arising from basal axilary buds. Most peach palms have numerous and sharp thorns, dark in colour and up to 14 cm long on the internodes. It is is typically multistemmed (1-13 cylindrical, straight stems) and caespitose, although single-stemmed trees occur. MorphologyД«actris gasipaes is a tree that reaches 6-24 m in height and 12-26 cm in diametre. All these by-products and crop residues can be used for animal feeding. It yields many crop residues and by-products: leaves, discarded fruits, seeds, oil cake (resulting from oil extraction), and heart-of-palm rinds. The peach palm ( Bactris gasipaes Kunth) is a dual-purpose tropical tree cultivated for its edible nutritious fruit that provides pulp, flour, cooking oil, and oil meal, and for the production of heart-of-palm.

Tb peach 3