Xate (pronounce: shatay) are the leaves from 3 Chamaedorea species of palm tree (Chamaedorea elegans, Chamaedorea oblongata and Chamaedorea ernesti-augustii).[1]
The leaves are used in the floral industry because of their popularity for flower arrangements, Palm Sunday services and funeral decoration.
Xate leaves are harvested by Xateros from palms in the forests of Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. Xateros rely on the harvest of palm leaves. Unfortunately this has made an impact on the population of palms in the wild.
Xate, and particularly Chamaedorea ernesti-augustii (also called fishtail), has been overcollected in the forests of Guatemala and Mexico. Now xateros from Guatemala cross the Belizean border to cut the leaf. Xateros earn less than US$5 per day, and it is the exporters and middlemen who tend to benefit most.
In 2004 Axel Köhler and Tim Trench produced a documentary film called Xateros about these commercial palm leaf collectors in Chiapas' Lacandon Jungle for the Proyecto Videoastas Indigenas de la Frontera Sur.[2]
![[1]](http://www.belizebotanic.org/uploaded_images/xate-web-784761.jpg){kind=link}