jacitara palm

English

Etymology

From Portuguese jacitara, from the name of the plant in Tupi-Guarani.

Noun

jacitara palm (plural jacitara palms)

1. A spiny, climbing palm, Desmoncus polyacanthos, native to the southern Caribbean and tropical South America.
   • 1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC:

     Climbing plants are monstrous and luxuriant, but others which have never been known to climb elsewhere learn the art as an escape from that somber shadow, so that the common nettle, the jasmine, and even the jacitara palm tree can be seen circling the stems of the cedars and striving to reach their crowns.