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Carnauba (Copernicia pruniferae)
Copernicia prunifera or the carnauba palm or carnaubeira palm is a species of palm tree native to northeastern Brazil (mainly Ceará, Piauí, Maranhão, Rio Grande do Norte and Bahia).

Known by many as tree of life, because of its many uses, the Carnaúba is also the tree symbol of Ceará. This initiattive to turn it into a symbol aims to promote its conservation and sustentable use.

Leaf Fibers
The Leaf Fibers as a byproduct of the wax production are known as “bagana” and they can be used as compost, coverage to maintain the soil humidity or compressed to form briquettes with high calorific value, used for energy production. The leaf fibers, or “palha”, are also used to manufacturate objects such as hats, baskets, bags and many others domestic products (Steinle and Johnson, 1935; Duke and duCellier). Those handicraft products are very apreciated by tourists and represent an important source of income to the local population. The wax palm leaves can also be used in rustic roof making.

Wood
The Carnauba Wood is used in constructions due it’s natural resistence to the most common wood pests, such as termites. Although it is mainly used by people with low acquisition, it is vastly used to build beach tents – Not only the pilar, but the leaf roof as well.

Plant description
Copernica prunifera can grow up to 20 m height, it has an average 25 cm diameter trunk, circular tree crown, with fan-leaves measuring 1,5m, bissexual flowers  and small black round fruits (2,5 cm). The palm can live to 200 hundreads years old (Duke and du Cellier, 1993)

Although it withstands drought excellently, it has a high water requirement. A slight saline composition in the soil produces the best trees.

Carnaubas are social palm trees, they are found in Carnaubais (assemblance of Carnaubas) in flooded areas or near a river.

Taxonomically it belongs to the subfamily Coryphoideae, tribe Corypheae, subtribe Livistoninae.