Megafauna

Hymenaea stigonocarpa

Jatoba

Jatobá [pronunciation: ja-tow-bah], in the Tupi language, means "tree with hard fruits". ‘Jatobá do cerrado’ (jatobá of the savanna), as it is called in Brazil, is endemic to the Brazilian savanna, namely the cerrado and cerradão. The two are distinguished only by the hardness of the leaves in the biome of the latter, a characteristic called sclerophyll. Sclerophyllous plants are highly resistant to lack of water and nutrients in the soil. The hardness of the fruits of this plant is a remnant of the Brazilian megafauna from the Pleistocene period, between 50 and 10 thousand years ago. During this period, plants relied on the consumption of their fruits by giant mammals to disperse their seeds. These mega herbivores have since become extinct, which has affected “many types of ecological processes, such as seed dispersal.” Today, plants that are “orphans of their mega-dispersers” are described as having a megafauna syndrome (quotes from Jacqueline Salvi de Mattos).

Persea americana

Avocado

Avocado cultivation is as old as the invention of the wheel. Five thousand years ago, in Mesoamerica, in what is now considered southern Mexico, the domestication of the avocado began. Before that, this fruit depended on giant mammals, now extinct, to consume and disperse this large and slightly toxic seed. It is said that, “in theory, the seed would be ready to sprout the moment it was” expelled. Shrines of religions of the African diaspora, such as Candomblé and Umbanda, use avocado leaves in cleansing washes and rituals for deities. There is also a common saying in rural Brazilian areas that avocados do not like to be planted alone, without other avocado trees nearby. Lonely, it gets sad, and doesn't produce many avocados. In reality, the avocado tree produces male and female flowers that bloom at different times of the day and depend on the action of pollinators to set fruit. Therefore, when the female flowers are open, there will possibly be no male flowers for pollination to occur. Therefore, at least two avocado plants are needed to guarantee a plentiful harvest.

Dipteryx alata

Dipteryx alata

The Dipteryx alata, known as Baru in Brazil, is native to the Brazilian savanna (cerrado) biome and produces a nut that is considered a super food. Its fruit is large and has a very hard shell, which results in limited consumption by small mammals. Therefore, this fruit is associated with the diet of the giant mammals which once inhabited Brazil. The extinction of this megafauna compromised the development of plant species like these, and currently, the Dipteryx alata is seen as vulnerable by the IUCN Red List. As one of the products sold by artisanal extractive associations in the cerrado region, the Baru nut has been preserved through human cultivation and consumption.