The peach palm is a multiple-stemmed palm with very spiny stems that can grow up to 20 m in height.
It is widely cultivated in the New World tropics for its edible fruit and palm hearts and archaeological evidence suggests that people have utilised it for many thousands of years.
The fruits, which hang in clusters, are yellow and apricot-like in appearance and, after cooking in salted water, taste like a cross between a potato and a chestnut.
They are sold in local markets in South and Central America, and are very nutritious, being rich in vitamins and protein.
Bactris Gasipaes has numerous common names.
In English: peach-palm or pewa (Trinidad and Tobago), peyibay, and pejivalle.
in Spanish: pejibaye (Costa Rica, Nicaragua), chontaduro or chantaduro (Colombia, Ecuador), pijuayo (Peru),
pijiguao (Venezuela), tembé (Bolivia), and cachipay (Colombia); and in Portuguese: pupunheira, and pupunha (Brazil).
In Panama we call it pixbae (pronounced pibá)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Wikipedia
A friend bought it for me this morning on the way to the quilt guild meeting - she paid $3 for it.
Street vendors sell the individual pixbaes for 3 for 25 cents. I might become a pixbae seller - seems like the profit is greater than selling prints!