Re-Visiting Camu-camu

Graduate student Meredith Martin (Yale Forestry) re-sampled the camu-camu (see Camu-camu) inventory plots that I originally established in 1984 along the banks of an ox-bow lake (shown above) in Peruvian Amazonia. Although the population had been exploited commercially for the past 27 years, Meredith found that the species continues to regenerate on the site, albeit at a lower rate, and that camu-camu is still an important wild-harvested resource along the lower Ucayali River. Extreme hydrological events since the late 1980's and the natural successional closure of the ox-bow lak have had a greater impact on the dynamics of this plant population than annual harvetsing. From the standpoint of sustainable forest use, this is an extremely important finding. [NOTE: A copy of the paper detailing this work (Economic Botany 68) can be found here].  

Camu-camu (From the Archive)

From 1984 to 1987, I lived and did research along the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.  One of my study species was a small riparian shrub, Myrciaria dubia HBK McVaugh, known locally as "camu-camu". The fruits of camu-camu have the highest concentration of Vitamin C of any fruit in the world.  Oranges have 30 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp, rose hips have about 100 mg, and camu-camu, in a class by itself, has 3,100 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp. The species grows in extremely dense stands along the banks of ox-bow lakes.  I ate a lot of camu-camu fruit while I was studying the ecology of this species.  It made blisters on my lips...but I never got a cold.

[NOTES: The second image shows a fruit collector in Supay cocha near my study site in Peru.  This picture was on the front page of the Washington Post (below the fold) on June 29, 1989.  All images were scanned from slides.]

[MORE NOTES (added to re-post): There is a Wikipedia entry about Myrciaria dubia here. Not sure I agree with all of the information presented, and I am curious why there is no photo of the fruit. Or why none of my published work on the species is referenced. Sigh.]

Caño Supay

During the years when I was living in the Peruvian Amazon and studying camu-camu (see Camu-camu), every morning I would meet up with Umberto (see Umberto Pacaya), walk down to the boathouse, throw all my gear in the Myriciaria (a dark green, wooden boat made for me by a local villager), and motor off to Supay cocha to count, tag, measure, collect, or do something with camu-camu plants. Trip took about 30 minutes, and after turning left off of the Ucayali River we would enter a winding channel, or caño, known as Caño Supay. Image above shows what this channel looked like on most days. It was usually 7:30 or 8:00 AM, i.e. rush hour, when I made this trip, and I would always reflect on the people inching forward in cars on the Hutchinson River Parkway on their way to work. And feel the wind in my hair. And see the kingfishers, the monkeys, and the Couroupita trees. And smell the river. And count my blessings (thx, Umberto).

Camu-camu

From 1984 to 1987, I lived and did research along the Ucayali River in the Peruvian Amazon.  One of my study species was a small riparian shrub, Myrciaria dubia HBK McVaugh, known locally as "camu-camu". The fruits of camu-camu have the highest concentration of Vitamin C of any fruit in the world.  Oranges have 30 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp, rose hips have about 100 mg, and camu-camu, in a class by itself, has 3,100 mg of ascorbic acid/100 g of pulp. The species grows in extremely dense stands along the banks of ox-bow lakes.  I ate a lot of camu-camu fruit while I was studying the ecology of this species.  It made blisters on my lips...but I never got a cold.

[NOTES: The second image shows a fruit collector in Supay cocha near my study site in Peru.  This picture was on the front page of the Washington Post (below the fold) on June 29, 1989.  All images were scanned from slides.]