in O.C.E.de Kerchove de Denterghem Scheelea tetrasticha (Drude) Burret Temenia regia (Mart.)

[5] The species was first described by French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet in 1775 in his Histoire des plantes de la Guiane Francoise as Palma maripa.

German botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius transferred it to the genus Attalea in 1844.

[2] Orator F. Cook placed it in its own genus in 1940, which he named Ethnora in recognition of Aublet's as a pioneer of the anti-slavery movement.

[7] Attalea maripa ranges from Trinidad and Tobago in the north to Bolivia in the south.

It is present in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil.

On Maracá Island, Roraima, in the Brazilian Amazon, fruit were consumed by tapirs, collared peccaries, deer and primates.

Most species consume the pulp and spit out intact seeds within a short distance of the parent tree.

Tapirs swallow the entire fruit and defaecate intact seeds further away from parent trees.

Most of the seeds that were not removed from the vicinity of the parent trees were killed by larvae of the bean weevil (Bruchid beetle) Pachymerus cardo.

[5] In Trinidad, A. maripa is a characteristic species in the savannas that develop when forests are converted to grasslands through repeated fires.

[8] Carbonised Attalea maripa seeds have been found in archaeological sites in Colombia dating back to 9000 BP.