The Arecaceae is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees. Currently, 181 genera with around 2,600 species are known, most of which are restricted to tropical and subtropical climates. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves, known as fronds, arranged at the top of an unbranched stem, except for the Hyphaene genus, who has branched palms. However, palms exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics and inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts.
Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed-canopy old-growth tropical forests of Southeast Asia, though they can also be found in other parts of tropical Asia and Africa. Most rattan palms are ecologically considered lianas due to their climbing habits, unlike other palm species. A few species also have tree-like or shrub-like habits.
Bactris is a genus of spiny palms which are native to Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean. Most species are small trees about 2 m tall, but some are large trees while others are shrubs with subterranean stems. They have simple or pinnately compound leaves and yellow, orange, red or purple-black fruit. The genus is most closely related to several other spiny palms—Acrocomia, Aiphanes, Astrocaryum and Desmoncus. The fruit of several species is edible, most notably B. gasipaes, while others are used medicinally or for construction.
Roystonea is a genus of eleven species of monoecious palms, native to the Neotropics, in the Caribbean, the adjacent coasts of Florida in the United States, Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Commonly known as the royal palms, the genus was named after Roy Stone, a U.S. Army engineer. It contains some of the most recognizable and commonly cultivated palms of tropical and subtropical regions.
Attalea is a large genus of palms native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America. This pinnately-leaved, non-spiny genus includes both small palms lacking an aboveground stem and large trees. The genus has a complicated taxonomic history, and has often been split into four or five genera based on differences in the male flowers. Since the genera can only be distinguished on the basis of their male flowers, the existence of intermediate flower types and the existence of hybrids between different genera has been used as an argument for keeping them all in the same genus. This has been supported by recent molecular phylogenies.
Korthalsia is a clustering genus of flowering plant in the palm family spread throughout Southeast Asia. It is a highly specialized rattan with some species known to have an intimate relationship with ants, hence the common name ant rattan. High-climbing and armed with spines, the genus is named for the Dutch botanist P. W. Korthals who first collected them from Indonesia.
Ceratolobus was a dioecious genus of flowering plants in the palm family found in Southeast Asia, commonly called rotan. Its species are now included within the genus Calamus. They were only differentiated from Calamus and close relatives like Korthalsia by leaf sheath appendages or inflorescence variations. The Greek genus name combines "horn" and "capsule".
Roystonea borinquena, commonly called the Puerto Rico royal palm, is a species of palm which is native to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
Roystonea oleracea, sometimes known as the Caribbean royal palm, palmiste, imperial palm or cabbage palm, is a species of palm which is native to the Lesser Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago. It is also reportedly naturalized in Guyana and on the islands of Mauritius and Réunion in the Indian Ocean.
John Dransfield is former head of palm research at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom.
Calamoideae is a subfamily of flowering plant in the palm family found throughout Central America, South America, Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia and Australia. It is represented by 21 genera - containing nearly a quarter of all species in the palm family - including the largest genus, Calamus, the type genus of the group. Only four are found in the New World while the rest are Old World denizens, usually found in equatorial swampland or along tropical coastlines.
Caryoteae is a tribe in the palm family Arecaceae, distributed across Southeast Asia, from southern India and Sri Lanka east to Vanuatu and northernmost Queensland, Australia. It was long considered a member of subfamily Arecoideae on the basis of its inflorescences, which resemble those of tribe Iriarteeae, and the flowers arranged in triads, which are common across Arecoideae. However, phylogenetic studies based on DNA repeatedly link Caryoteae to subfamily Coryphoideae. Caryoteae do have leaves with induplicate folds, a feature found in most Coryphoid palms, but unlike most Coryphoideae, the leaves are pinnate or bipinnate (Caryota). Phoenix is the only other Coryphoid genus with induplicate, pinnate leaves.
Iriarteeae is a palm tribe in the subfamily Arecoideae.
Chamaedoreeae is a palm tribe in the subfamily Arecoideae. It has five genera.
Chuniophoeniceae is a tribe of palms in subfamily Coryphoideae of plant family Arecaceae. The four genera within the tribe are morphologically dissimilar and do not have overlapping distributions. Three of the genera are monotypic, while the fourth genus (Chuniophoenix) has three species.
Trachycarpeae is a tribe of palms in subfamily Coryphoideae of the plant family Arecaceae. It has the widest distribution of any tribe in Coryphoideae and is found on all continents, though the greatest concentration of species is in Southeast Asia. Trachycarpeae includes palms from both tropical and subtropical zones; the northernmost naturally-occurring palm is a member of this tribe. Several genera can be found in cultivation in temperate areas, for example species of Trachycarpus, Chamaerops, Rhapidophyllum and Washingtonia.
Calamus tetradactylus is a climbing plant in the Arecaceae, or palm, family, and is part of a subfamily, Calamoideae, whose members are usually called rattans in English. It is native to southeast and east Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, south and central Laos, and Yunnan and elsewhere in southeast China. It grows in evergreen forest and scrub between 100 and 1,000m elevation. In Cambodia, it is described as a large and long rattan, its stalk growing from 20 to 70m long, growing in secondary formations near rivers.
Part of a group, the subfamily Calamoideae, whose members are usually called rattans in English, Calamus godefroyi, is a climbing plant, and part of the Arecaceae, or palm, family.
Calamus bousigonii, is a liana, a climbing plant, and part of the Arecaceae, or palm, family. It is a member of the subfamily Calamoideae, whose members are usually called rattans in English,
Geonomateae is a palm tribe in the subfamily Arecoideae. It is an important Neotropical group due to its wide distribution across Central and South America, its diversity and abundance, and the use of a number of species by local human populations. The distribution of the tribe stretches from southeast Mexico down through Central America and into South America, notably Brazil and Bolivia, and species are also found in the Greater and Lesser Antilles. This tribe consists of a group of understory and sub-canopy palms that populate both tropical lowland and montane forests. While members of this group are relatively easy to collect, as they are not canopy palms or spiny palms, and are well represented in herbaria, the taxonomy and phylogeny of the species within the tribe are still uncertain. The resolution of the tribe has been disputed despite the fact that tribe's species are characterized by three morphological synapomorphies: the petals of pistillate flowers are basally connate, the presence of slender and elongate styles, and the flowers are borne in pits in the rachillae.
