odorata) along with a number of other taxa such as Cocos pulposa, C. elegantissima, C. erythrospatha and C. lilaceiflora, which he all made different varieties of B. capitata.

[12] This is a solitary-trunked palm with a stout erect to slightly inclined trunk, occasionally being subterranean, growing up to 2 to 10m high and 0.32 to 0.6m in diameter.

Unlike other species of Butia (except B. catariensis), these are inserted in groups of 2 to 4 at slightly divergent angles along the rachis, but without giving the leaf a plumose aspect such as in Syagrus.

Vorster (Mule palm) - This is a hybrid of Butia odorata with Syagrus romanzoffiana found both naturally in the wild as well as in cultivation, it was first described from garden examples in Europe.

[2][14] Bauermann et al. investigated the possibility of using palm pollen, including this species, in palynology, in order to try to provide more detail about the ancient changes in habitat in the state Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil by tracking the changes in distribution and abundance of the palms, but were unable to provide much detail on the subject.

[14] Despite being extensively planted in several areas across southern Europe, the United States, and elsewhere, this species is rarely recorded as escaping from gardens or naturalising.

[16] In 2004, 2005 & 2008 the same flora, expanded to Georgia by 2004 and northern Florida in 2008, stated that this palm (as B. capitata) is not naturalised in the region, but that it is widely planted along the coastal strip of southeastern North Carolina, eastern South Carolina, eastern Georgia and northern Florida, and that these garden plants often persist despite neglect and can appear naturalised in superficially semi-natural locations.

[17][18][19] In 2018 the first instance of this palm (now identified as B. odorata) naturalising in this region was published, based on specimen vouchers collected in 2007 from young plants some distance from human habitation in Camden Co., in the far southeast corner of Georgia.

[22][23] Another instance of this palm naturalising was recorded in literature (no voucher) in 2013 in Silver River State Park, Marion Co.[16] As of 2018, the Atlas of Florida Plants shows voucher specimens (identified as B. capitata (with a caveat)) have been collected in the central and northern counties of Hernando, Volusia, Washington, Liberty, Gadsden, Leon and Wakulla.

[24] Butia odorata frequently serves as a host for the epiphyte fig species Ficus cestrifolia (locals sometimes believe that fruit from these trees is much more sweet).

C. palmicola was first collected in 1989, described in 1995, and as of 2012 has only been found on the trunks of Butia trees growing along the coast from Santa Catarina State to Uruguay.

[26][27][28] Butterfly caterpillars recorded feeding in Uruguay in 1974 on this palm (B. odorata identified as Syagrus capitata in this study) are Blepolenis batea and Opsiphanes invirae, either the nominate form or possibly subspecies remoliatus.

[30] Around 4750 BC, as the climate started to dry out for a prolonged period, an agricultural civilisation began to develop in the extensive wetlands around Merín Lagoon in Rocha department, Uruguay, as evidenced today by thousands of mounds, known as cerritos, strewn over the landscape.

These peoples lived in sedentary villages that accumulated household refuse such as broken tools, stone flakes, shells, pieces of charcoal or bone, other remains of foods, and pottery sherds and graves in a later archaeological stage, eventually forming mounds, which during a later stage were expressly enlarged and heightened with such materials as burnt termite mounds and gravel.

These people survived on a diet based on some hunting and fishing along with the cultivation of maize and gourds, and later beans, and collection of tuberous marsh plants such as Typha, Canna, Marantha and Araceae.

Nuts and phytoliths of Butia odorata are abundant here in association with the traces of human occupancy from even before the first evidence of the adoption of agriculture throughout many millennia of the mound-builder villages, thus indicating that the fruit and fronds were used, but it is unclear if the nearby palm groves were wild, cultivated or encouraged to spread (either by design or not).

[31][32] Around approximately AD 0 a new people moved into the north of this region from the Amazon, the ancestors of the Tupi-Guaraní peoples, who initially settled in the dense woodland along the margins of the larger rivers, where they practised slash-and-burn agriculture using crops such as cassava, peanuts, gourds, beans, potatoes and sweet potatoes.

These peoples lived in sedentary to semi-permanent villages of numerous family longhouses arranged in circles around the centre, and had a culture including managing fallow lands for further agricultural production, wearing lip discs, ritual anthropophagic feasts with fermented beverages, long distance trade using roads, exclusive use of bark for fuel in pottery kilns and funerary hearths, and cremation with the remains buried in urns in the village centre.

[2] It is notable as one of the hardiest feather palms, sometimes tolerating brief drops in temperature down to about −10 °C at night; it is often cultivated in subtropical climates.

[33] It is cultivated as a fruit tree in Brazil and Uruguay, and especially the larger-fruited, semi-domesticated, pulposa-type plants are reasonably common in local orchards.

[2] In the type most often grown in the USA, the ripe fruit are about the size of large cherry, and yellowish/orange in colour, but can also include a blush towards the tip.

[34] Noblick in 1996 notes that the population he visited growing in a cattle pasture that had once been restinga was unhealthy as there was no recruitment (growth of new individuals).