Butia microspadix is a very small species of grass-like Butia palm usually with an underground trunk; native to the states of Paraná and São Paulo in Brazil. It has been given the common name dwarf woolly jelly palm in English. It is locally known as butiazinho-do-campo or just butiazinho in Portuguese. The species epithet is derived from ancient Greek μικρός (mikrós), meaning 'small', and σπάδῑξ (spā́dīx), originally meaning 'palm frond' but referring to the inflorescence. Taxonomy It was first described in Berlin in 1930 by Max Burret on the basis of two specimens collected in the 19th century in Brazil; one collected by Friedrich Sellow in São Paulo, the other by the cartographer Joseph Keller in Paraná. He also cited another specimen collected by the entomologist Hermann Luederwaldt to the south of São Paulo (no. 12267), which he mentioned was extremely close to the species as he described it. These specimens were all believed to be destroyed in 1943 during World War II by a fire caused by allied bombing. The fire also destroyed the records of where duplicates had been sent. In 1967 Sidney Fredrick Glassman described Syagrus hatschbachii as a new species from specimens collected by G. Hatschbach in Paraná State in 1961, but after publishing his article, he discovered an old specimen from Luederwaldt (no. 12267) in the herbarium of São Paulo which had been determined as Butia microspadix by Burret. In 1968 he published his opinion that, although it appeared to be the same as the specimens of Syagrus hatschbachii he had, as Luederwaldt's specimen was of an immature plant he thus could not be certain it was the same, and as he found the specimen did not match Burret's description to his "satisfaction", thus he considered Burret's Butia microspadix to be a species incerta. He repeated this in 1970, but in 1979, after having studied additional specimens, he changed his mind and concluded that these two taxa were indeed the same. Description Butia microspadix is usually acaulescent, but may sometimes, rarely, develop a tiny trunk of up to 20–30 cm, and 10 cm diameter. It rarely exceeds 60 cm in total height including the leaves, growing to a maximum height of 90 cm. It is always solitary-trunked. It is very slow growing. It very much resembles a tuft of grass. The 3-10 leaves are pinnate and coloured greyish-green. The 13–20 cm long leaf petiole is