The trunk is composed of a hard outer ring of black fibers embedded in a lighter tan or light brown colored body.

Its wild and domesticated populations can be found in Central America, in the Pacific lowlands of Colombia and Ecuador, in Venezuela and in the area of the Amazon rainforest, especially at the eastern foothills of the Andes.

The widespread cultivation of peach palm in the Americas reflects its capacity to adapt to a wide range of ecological conditions in the tropics and subtropics.

In general, the western populations have harder stems, more abundant and stronger spines, larger leaves and more solid rooting in their juvenile phase.

Pollination is carried out mainly by insects, especially by small curculionid beetles over distances between 100 and 500 m. Wind and gravity can also function as pollen vectors.

The gene flow of outcrossing tree species with such scattered distribution may be restricted and could result in genetically distinct, isolated subpopulations with small effective population sizes.

[5] In contrast to the cultivated peach palm, wild populations are threatened by deforestation, driven mainly by agricultural expansion and the transition of forest to savannah.

Many populations are now isolated by increasing forest fragmentation, which will lead to decreased reproduction via inbreeding depression and eventual extinction even without complete deforestation.

[5] Bactris gasipaes was domesticated early in the occupation of the lowland humid neotropics by the indigenous people of the Americas during the pre-Columbian era.

[8] Though first used by humans for wood, it was likely fully domesticated for its starchy and oily fruits, of which the heart of palm is the most valued part in modern cultivation.

In several countries in Central and South America, it is found in combination with pineapple, papaya, passion fruit, maize, cassava and cacao.

[14] Peach palm fruit can further be used to feed fish, poultry and pigs and to produce multi-nutritional blocks for cows, goats and sheep.

Spanish explorers found a pejibaye plantation of 30,000 trees on the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica, providing fruit that replaced corn in the indigenous diet.

The texture both raw and cooked has been compared to a firm sweet potato, and the flavor to hominy, dry squash or roasted chestnut.

Further, peach palm chips, currently produced in southern Colombia, are believed to have a large potential to enter mainstream markets.

[20] During the colonization of the Americas, the Spanish cut down 20,000 peach palms in Costa Rica in order to deprive and subjugate the indigenous population.