Walking Palm / Cashapona

Overview

The walking palm (Socratea exorrhiza) is one of the most distinctive trees in the Tortuguero rainforest. It grows 15–20 m tall with a slender stem roughly 12 cm in diameter, but its signature is the basket of stilt roots — thick, adventitious roots that emerge from the lower trunk and splay outward to the ground, holding the tree above the soil surface on what looks like a tangle of wooden legs.

These stilt roots can grow up to 70 cm per month and measure 8–10 cm in diameter. Mature trees may be colonized by more than 60 epiphyte species, with bryophytes covering up to 30% of the stem.

The popular claim that walking palms move — slowly walking across the forest floor toward light by growing new roots on the sunny side while the shaded roots die off — is a persistent myth. Botanical research has confirmed that the trees do not relocate in any directed way. The stilt roots’ real function is likely stabilization on the root-poor, waterlogged soils of lowland rainforest, allowing the slender trunk to remain upright despite shallow anchoring and to recover after partial tip-over from falling neighbors.

Why Tortuguero

The flooded and waterlogged soils of the Tortuguero lowlands are exactly the conditions that favor stilt-rooted palms. Socratea exorrhiza is one of the most abundant palms in the park and a structural component of the understory in both terra firma and periodically inundated forest. The palm is also an important food source: white-lipped peccaries eat the seeds in quantity, and the yellow fruits are consumed by a range of mammals and birds.

For visitors, this palm is both an identification landmark — no other species in Tortuguero has the same stilt-root architecture at this scale — and an entry point to the ecology of the waterlogged forest floor.

How to see them (honestly)

• The stilt roots are the identification feature; look for baskets of roots 50 cm to over 1 m above the soil surface, angling outward from the base of a tall, slender palm.
• Walking palms are abundant enough that you will encounter them on any forest trail, including the principal trails near the park entrance.
• The fruits (small, yellow, grape-sized clusters) are seasonally visible in the crown.
• The “walking” myth makes a good interpretive moment — guides often use it to discuss how plant adaptations are misread by observers looking for animal behavior.

Status note

Socratea exorrhiza is Least Concern with no documented population pressures at the species level. It is common across a large range and tolerates varying levels of forest disturbance. Within Tortuguero its population is stable. The broader threat to this species, as with all rainforest understory plants, is large-scale deforestation outside protected areas.