2.1 | Study Organism
Jubaea chilensis is an arborescent and woody monocot, with a bare and cylindrical stipe narrower towards the top, reaching up to 30m of height and from 0.80 to 1.10m in diameter. It presents diclino-monoecious unisexual flowers and the fruit is a drupe with a single spherical seed of approximately 2–3cm (0.79–1.18 pol.) in diameter. The fruit a hard endocarp (shell) and a whitish endosperm (Angulo, 1985; Edwards, 1903; Fleury et al., 2015; Rodríguez et al., 1983). The dispersed seeds germinate up to four years, forming persistent seed banks. Although the species adapts very well to its environment, the first stages of growth in which the seedlings must survive under the canopy are critical for its permanence (González & Vita, 1987), especially in understory of sclerophyllous and/or spiny species (Del Fierro et al., 1998). It is considered a shade-tolerant species (González, 1985) that coexists with other species such asAcacia caven (Molina) Molina, Crinodendron patagua Mol.,Cryptocarya alba (Molina) Looser, Drimys winteri J.R. Forst. & G.Forst., Persea lingue Miers ex Bertero Nees,Quillaja saponaria Molina, Peumus boldus Molina, among others (González, 1985; González et al., 2017). J. chilensis’natural populations are distributed from La Serena (29º 54 ’S - 71º 15º W) in the Coquimbo Region to Tapihue - Pencague (35º 15’ S - 71º 47 ’W) in the Maule Region. It inhabits warm climate areas with dry summers and coastal areas with coastal influence (Angulo, 1985; Donoso, 1981) from sea level to approximately 1.400 msnm (Hechenleitner et al., 2005) tolerating temperatures from 2.9ºC to 30.8ºC, with precipitations ranging from 127 to 879 mm (Del Fierro et al., 1998; González et al., 2017).