Introduction to the Arecaceae Family

Welcome to the Arecaceae family, a curious monocot that often thinks it’s a tree!

Common Botanical Description

If you’re new to plant morphology, this guide is a perfect beginner’s description for learning to identify the Arecaceae or palm family, with no need to know any scientific jargon. Below this section is additional information on uses and morphology photos to help you identify the family, followed by pictures of individual species found in North America. But for researchers or those wanting to learn a more in-depth version, refer to the Scientific Botanical Description below the images for highly detailed scientific descriptions and genus-level distribution data.

Leaves and Stems of the Arecaceae: The Arecaceae are mostly trees or shrubs, but woody vines that climb using spines and hooks are also seen. And the trees are not “true trees” by the botanical definition because they cannot perform secondary growth (get wider trunks as they age), so when they have trunks, they tend to be long and skinny and topped with a cluster of leaves just at the very top. Others are multi-stemmed from the ground, and still other shrub forms are trunkless.

The leaves are almost always compound, made of leaflets, often via shredding of the leaf as it emerges from its sheath. They are mostly either fan-shaped or feather-like with pairs of opposite leaflets.  

Flowers of the Arecaceae: The flowers are almost always unisexual (male or female, not both in the same flower) with male and female flowers on the same plant (monoecious) or separate plants (dioecious). Individual flowers are small, usually having 6 white to greenish tepals, but they are usually arranged in sometimes enormous branched inflorescences enclosed in a leafy spathe at their base.

Reproductive Features of the Arecaceae: The male parts (stamens) appear in 3s and may occasionally have essentially too many to count, usually appearing in 2 or 3 whorls. The ovary has 3(4-10) chambers with one ovule in each, and each chamber may have its own style, or there may be no styles.

Fruits of the Arecaceae: Arecaceae fruits are nearly always a berry or a drupe (think like a cherry with a central pit, though some palms are more fibrous than fleshy) or, rarely, a nut (coconut). Seeds are always oily.

Uses of Arecaceae 

The Arecaceae family has enormous economical importance for trade and local uses throughout the tropics, including coconut products (Cocos nucifera), palm oils (Elaeis guineensis), betel nut palm (Areca catechu), peach palm (Bactris gasipaes), palm dates, ivory nuts, carnauba wax, house-building materials, rattan cane, raffia, hats and mats, etc. Many are also used ornamentally around the world, including Dypsis lutescens, Howea forsteriana, Phoenix species, Sabal species, Washingtonia robusta, Roystonea regia, and more.

Record-Setting Arecaceae

There are some remarkable palms, including Ceroxylon quindiuense from Colombia, which is the tallest monocot in the world at 60 m tall. Lodoicea maldivica has the largest seeds of any plant, 40–50 cm in diameter and weighing 15–30 kg each. Raffia palms (Raphia spp.) have the largest leaves of any plant up to 25 m long and 3 m wide. The Corypha species has the largest inflorescence of any plant, up to 7.5 m tall, and contains millions of small flowers. Calamus stems (woody vine palms) can reach 200 m in length.

Ecosystem and Wildlife Values of Arecaceae

Palms are considered keystone resources in tropical and subtropical ecosystems, where they provide important structure, food, and shelter in rainforests. They also offer habitat and nesting sites for countless birds, reptiles, and invertebrates and host numerous epiphytic plants as well. They are a critical food source for fruit-eating animals, providing a consistent source of food.

Morphology of Arecaceae in North America

Some Species of Arecaceae Found in North America

Arecoideae Subfamily

Adonida merrillii—Christmas Palm

This feather palm is known for its bright red and green berry-like drupes, which give it the common name “Christmas Palm.” This former endemic of the Phillipines is often grown in North America and may be starting to naturalize. This one was in cultivation in Mexico.

Attalea cohune—Cohune Palm

This slow-growing, relatively cold-hardy palm has a single trunk with a top of loose, feather-like leaves. This species is endemic to southwestern Mexico, parts of Central America, and Colombia. This one was in cultivation in Mexico.

Coryphoideae Subfamily

Phoenix dactylifera—Date Palm

This is where most of our delicious dates come from, the date palm. It is also widely cultivated in palm-growing regions of North America. It is a feather palm up to 30 m tall that produces very sweet drupes (dates) in large, drooping inflorescences.

Sabal minor—Dwarf Palmetto

This wild palm is probably one of the most northern species, ranging from northern Mexico north into Oklahoma and east to North Carolina. It has fan-like costapalmate leaves and remains mostly trunkless its entire life but can get somewhat tree-like as it ages.

Washingtonia robusta—Mexican Fan Palm

One of the most commonly cultivated subtropical palms in the world, this palm is native to the Sonoran Desert along the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. It grows up to 25 m and has leaf stalks armed with sharp thorns and broad fan-shaped leaves. These ones were growing wild in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, Mexico.

Scientific Botanical Description of the Arecaceae Family

Habit & Leaf Form of the Arecaceae Family

The Arecaceae family is a group of arborescent, pachycaul trees, shrubs, and woody vines that may be trunk-forming, trunkless, or prostrate. They are green and photosynthesizing; mesophytic (mostly) or xerophytic; and self-supporting (usually) or climbing via spines and hooks. They are not true trees since secondary growth via vascular cambium is impossible, explaining the nearly constant diameter of the stem, though some have anomalous secondary growth. 

Leaves are often spirally arranged at the top of an unbranched stem (monopodial) and may be solitary or clustered. They can range from small to exceptionally large, and they have alternate spiral or distichous arrangements. The leaves are leathery, petiolate, epulvinate, and sheathing, with tubular sheaths that have joined margins but often split at maturity. Leaves are almost always compound or falsely bifoliolate, pinnate, palmate, or rarely bipinnate. Leaves become compound by ontogenetically predetermined splitting of the leaves as they emerge. The lamina has no cross-venules. Leaves are often ligulate in palmate and costapalmate forms but otherwise are eligulate. Vernation is conduplicate. Stomata are mostly tetracytic.

Flowers of the Arecaceae Family

The family is almost entirely dioecious and monoecious, or sometimes polygamomonoecious, and rarely hermaphroditic. Flora nectaries may be present from the gynoecium, septal nectaries, or via the stamen bases, and pollination is often entomophilous, but anemophilous pollination is also seen.

Flowers are in complex, usually axillary panicles, sometimes terminal. Inflorescences are usually spatheate and may become woody when mature. Individual flowers are small, +/- regular, 3-merous, usually cyclic, or sometimes partially acyclic. Rarely is the perianth acyclic or the androecium acyclic. A perigone tube may be present.

The perianth has a distinct calyx and corolla of tepals; sometimes they are vestigial or rarely absent. There are usually 6 tepals, but there may be 4–9 (rarely when spiral), free or joined, 2-whorled (usually 3+3, sometimes 2+2), or rarely 1; sepaloid, petaloid, or both; usually different in the 2 whorls; and usually white or cream but may be greenish.

Androecium of the Arecaceae Family

The androecium is made of 3, 6, 9, or 10–900 stamens and may include staminodes. They are isomerous, usually diplostemonous, or may be triplostemonous to polystemonous with the perianth. Androecial members are either free from the perianth or adnate to it, and free from one another or coherent (adelphous), with the filaments often united into a tube or cup. They are 2 or 3 whorled (or acyclic). The anthers dehisce via longitudinal slits and are latrorse and tetrasporangiate.

Gynoecium of the Arecaceae Family

The gynoecium consists of a synovarious to synstylovarious, rarely apocarpous, ovary that is 3 (4–10) carpelled or, when syncarpous, 1 (rarely by abortion as in Cocos) or 3 (4–10) celled. It may be non-stylate or stylate. Styles 1 or 3 (4–10); free to fully joined, with dry-type stigmas that are papillate and Group II type. There is 1 ovule per locule with subapical or basal (or lateral) placentation; non-arillate; orthotropous, anatropous, campylotropous, or hemianatropous; bitegmic; and crassinucellate.

Fruit of the Arecaceae Family

Arecaceae fruits are nearly always an indehiscent berry or a drupe (sometimes with a fibrous mesocarp), occasionally an aggregate, or rarely a nut (Cocos nucifera). When apocarpous (rarely), it is drupaceous and indehiscent. Fruits are 1-seeded with endospermic seeds that are usually oil, usually do not contain starch, and may or may not be ruminate.

Taxonomy of Arecaceae

There are 2,457 species in 188 genera in the Arecaceae family of the Arecales order of the Commelinid clade of monocots. Additionally, there are 5 subfamilies in the family, as follows:

1. Arecoideae are the largest subfamily, with about 1,390 species in 107 genera with a pantropical distribution but are the most diverse in South America. They are a highly diverse group with a high degree of endemism, ranging from tiny forest floor palms to giant trees and climbers. But what they do have in common is reduplicately pinnate leaves (“feather palms”), highly differentiated primary inflorescence bracts, and floral triads made of clusters of three unisexual flowers, a central female flower and 2 male flowers (exc. Chamaedoreeae, which produces a unique floral cluster known as an acervulus).
2. Calamoideae are easy to identify since they are woody vines that climb by ± recurved spines and produce fruits covered by reflexed scales. They are a pantropical subfamily of 655 species and 21 genera but are mostly found in the South Pacific islands.
3. Ceroxyloideae is a diverse group of 45 species in 8 genera, mostly found in central and western South America, Florida, and the Antilles but also in Madagascar and NE Australia. They are often called wax palms because their trunks are often waxy and they typically have pinnate leaves and are more cold-tolerant and found at higher elevations than most palms.
4. Coryphoideae are a group of fan palms with 448 species in 45 genera, best known for their palmate or costapalmate leaves, and include well-known members such as Phoenix, Washingtonia, and Sabal. They are mostly shrubs and trees with a pantropical to warm-temperate distribution and are represented in the Americas, both native and introduced.
5. Nypoideae is a monospecific subfamily, a rhizomatous plant with dichotomously branched stems, racemose inflorescences, and fruits with longitudinal ridges protruding into the seed. It is the only palm adapted to the mangrove biome, and it is found in the South Pacific Islands.

Genera of the Arecaceae Family:

Arecoideae: Acanthophoenix (3), Acrocomia (8), Actinokentia (2), Actinorhytis (1), Adonidia (1), Aiphanes (28), Allagoptera (5), Archontophoenix (6), Areca (45), Asterogyne (5), Astrocaryum (38), Attalea (72), Bactris (79), Balaka (9), Barcella (1), Basselinia (14), Beccariophoenix (2), Bentinckia (2), Brassiophoenix (2), Burretiokentia (5), Butia (20), Calyptrocalyx (26), Calyptrogyne (18), Calyptronoma (3), Carpentaria (1), Carpoxylon (1), Chamaedorea (108), Chambeyronia (2), Clinosperma (4), Clinostigma (11), Cocos (1), Cyphokentia (2), Cyphophoenix (4), Cyphosperma (4), Cyrtostachys (7), Deckenia (1), Desmoncus (11), Dictyocaryum (3), Dictyosperma (1), Dransfieldia (1), Drymophloeus (7), Dypsis (107), Elaeis (2), Euterpe (8), Gaussia (5), Geonoma (68), Hedyscepe (1), Heterospathe (38), Howea (2), Hydriastele (48), Hyophorbe (5), Hyospathe (4), Iguanura (32), Iriartea (1), Iriartella (2), Jubaea (1), Jubaeopsis (1), Kentiopsis (4), Laccospadix (1), Lemurophoenix (1), Leopoldinia (2), Lepidorrhachis (1), Linospadix (7), Loxococcus (1), Lytocaryum (4), Manicaria (2), Marojejya (2), Masoala (2), Nenga (5), Neonicholsonia (1), Neoveitchia (2), Nephrosperma (1), Normanbya (1), Oenocarpus (10), Oncosperma (6), Orania (18), Parajubaea (3), Pelagodoxa (1), Phoenicophorium (1), Pholidostachys (4), Physokentia (7), Pinanga (138), Podococcus (2), Pogonotium (3), Ponapea (3), Prestoea (10), Ptychococcus (2), Ptychosperma (29), Reinhardtia (6), Rhopaloblaste (6), Rhopalostylis (2), Roscheria (1), Roystonea (10), Satakentia (1), Sclerosperma (3), Socratea (5), Solfia (1), Sommieria (1), Syagrus (54), Synechanthus (2), Tectiphiala (1), Veitchia (8), Verschaffeltia (1), Voanioala (1), Welfia (2), Wendlandiella (1), Wettinia (22), and Wodyetia (1).

Calamoideae: Calamus (418), Eleiodoxa (1), Eremospatha (11), Eugeissona (6), Korthalsia (27), Laccosperma (6), Lepidocaryum (1), Mauritia (2), Mauritiella (4), Metroxylon (7), Myrialepis (1), Oncocalamus (5), Pigafetta (2), Plectocomia (15), Plectocomiopsis (6), Raphia (20), and Salacca (22).

Ceroxyloideae: Ammandra (1), Aphandra (1), Ceroxylon (12), Juania (1), Oraniopsis (1), Phytelephas (7), Pseudophoenix (4), and Ravenea (20).

Coryphoideae: Acoelorrhaphe (1), Arenga (25), Borassodendron (2), Borassus (5), Bismarckia (1), Brahea (11), Caryota (14), Chamaerops (1), Chelyocarpus (4), Chuniophoenix (3), Coccothrinax (53), Colpothrinax (3), Copernicia (28), Corypha (5), Cryosophila (10), Guihaia (2), Hemithrinax (3), Hyphaene (8), Itaya (1), Johannesteijsmannia (4), Kerriodoxa (1), Lanonia (8), Latania (3), Leucothrinax (1), Licuala (153), Livistona (28), Lodoicea (1), Maxburretia (3), Medemia (1), Nannorrhops (1), Phoenix (14), Pholidocarpus (6), Pritchardia (29), Rhapidophyllum (1), Rhapis (11), Sabal (~15), Sabinaria (1), Saribus (8), Satranala (1), Schippia (1), Serenoa (1), Tahina (1), Thrinax (3), Trachycarpus (9), Trithrinax (4), Wallichia (8), Washingtonia (2), and Zombia (1).

Nypoideae: Nypa (1).

Key Differences From Similar Families

The Arecaceae is a unique family of monocot trees and shrubs that are easily distinguished from other families. However, Cyclanthaceae is a family of palm-like monocot shrubs that can be confused at times. However, some Cyclanthaceae are root climbers (climbing palms use recurved spines, not roots, to climb); others are shrub-like and do not develop palm leaves. They have distinctive spicate inflorescences with alternating male and female flowers unique to Cyclanthaceae, and when present, their perianth parts are in sets of 4, unlike those of palms.

Distribution of Arecaceae

The Arecaceae family is a widespread pantropical and tropical family, mostly restricted to the tropics and subtropics, although it can be found in the warm temperate regions of North America. In the Americas the family is found from the southern USA through Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Distribution of Arecaceae in the Americas

Canadian Genera Include:

Absent.

USA Genera Include:

Arecoideae: Butia 1 sp. intro to FL, SC, NC; Chamaedorea 1 sp. intro to FL and HI; Cocos 1 sp. intro to FL, GA, SC, NC, and HI; Dypsis 1 sp. intro to FL; Elaeis 1 sp. intro to FL; Ptychosperma 2 spp. introduced in FL; Roystonea 1 sp. native to FL. Ceroxyloideae: Pseudophoenix 1 sp. native to FL. Coryphoideae: Acoelorraphe 1 sp. native to FL; Caryota 2 spp. introduced to FL; Coccothrinax 1 sp. native to FL; Leucothrinax monospecific native to FL Keys; Livistona 2 spp. intro to FL and HI; Phoenix 3 spp. intro to CA, AZ, FL, and HI; Pritchardia 27 spp. native to HI including mostly endemics; Rhapidophyllum monospecific native to MS, AL, GA, SC, and FL; Sabal 5-6 spp. native to TX, OK, AR, LA, MS, AL, GA, FL, SC, and NC, including 1-2 endemics; Serenoa monospecific endemic to the SE USA along S Atlantic and Gulf Coastal plains and sand hills in TX, LA, MS, AL, GA, SC, and FL; Thrinax 1 sp. native to FL; Washingtonia 2 spp. are native and introduced in CA, NV, AZ, and FL.

Mexico Genera Include:

Arecoideae: Aconidia 1 sp. intro Sin and NL S to Chp, SE to QR and Yuc; Acrocomia 1 sp. native to Nay and SLP S to Chp, also Yuc; Archontophoenix 2 spp. intro to Ags, Cam, Chp, Col, Gto, NL, QR, Sin, and Yuc; Astrocaryum 1 sp. native to Chp, Oax, QR, Ver; Attalea 4 spp. native from Nay S to Chp and SE to QR and Yuc; Bactris 4 spp. native to Cam, Chp, Oax, Tab, Tam, Ver; Calyptrogyne 1 sp. native to Chp, Tab, Ver; Chamaedorea 28 spp. native, inc. 8 endemics Sin, Son, and Tam, and widespread SLP S to Chp and SE to QR and Yuc; Cocos monospecific widely introduced and cultivated in most of Mexico except BC, Chi, Coa, Dgo, Mex, and NL; Desmoncus 1 sp. native to Oax, Ver; Dypsis 1 sp. intro to Chi, Coa, Nay, and Ver S to Chp and SE to Yuc and QR; Elaeis 1 sp. intro to Chp, Ver, and Tab; Gaussia 2 spp. native to Chp, Oax, QR, Ver; Geonoma 3 spp. native to Chp and Ver; Manicaria 1 sp. native in QR?; Reinhardtia 3 spp. native to Chp, Oax, and Ver; Roystonea 2 spp native W Son and SLP S to Oax and Chp, SE to QR and Yuc; Syagrus 1 sp. intro Dgo, NL S to Oax, plus QR, Yuc; Synechanthus 1 sp. native to S Mexico. Ceroxyloideae: Pseudophoenix 1 sp. native to QR and Yuc. Coryphoideae: Acoelorraphe monotypic native SE Mexico plus Ags, Jal; Bismarckia 1 sp. intro to Chp, Nay, Sin, QR, Yuc; Brahea 11 spp. inc. 8 endemic throughout Mexico; Caryota 1 sp. intro Nay to SLP and S to Chp, SE to E QR; Coccothrinax 7 spp. native to BC, BCS, QR, Son, Yuc, including 1 endemic to QR and Yuc; Copernicia 1 sp. intro Sin; Cryosophila 2 spp. with 1 endemic Sin S to Chp and SE to QR; Licuala 1 sp. intro Gro, Jal, and Nay; Phoenix 3 spp. intro to NW Mexico; Rhapis 1 sp. intro Mor; Sabal 10 spp., inc. 4 endemics native to most of Mexico except BC, BCS, Chi, and Coa; Thrinax 1 sp. native from Nay E to SLP and all S, but mostly QR and Yuc; Trachycarpus 1 sp. intro to Chp, Jal, QR, and Sin; Washingtonia 2 spp., inc. 1 endemic to SW USA, BC, Son, and other intro in NE Mexico.

Neotropical Genera Include:

Arecoideae: Acrocomia ~ 9 spp. native to CAM,  the Caribbean, and SAM S to Argentina; Aiphanes 26 spp. endemic to CAM, SAM, and the Caribbean; Allagoptera 5 spp. endemic to SAM; Asterogyne 5 spp. native to CAM and N SAM, with 3 endemic to Venezuela; Astrocaryum ~ 40 spp. native to CAM, SAM, and Trinidad; Attalea ~67 spp. native to Mexico, the Caribbean, CAM, and tropical SAM; Bactris ~79 spp. native to Mexico, CAM, and tropical SAM; Barcella monotypic endemic to Amazonas and Roraima in NW Brazil; Butia ~ 25 spp. native to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina; Calyptrogyne 18 spp. native to CAM and Colombia, including 11 endemic to Panama; Calyptronoma 3 spp. endemic genera of the Greater Antilles; Chamaedorea 100 spp. native to CAM, Colombia, N+C Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia; Cocos monospecific cultivated and introduced to El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Greater Antilles, Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana, Brazil, Bolivia, and N Chile; Desmoncus 24 spp. native to CAM (exc. El Salvador) and tropical SAM S to Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Brazil, Trinidad-Tobago, and the Windward Islands; Dictyocaryum 3 spp. endemic genera of Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, N Brazil, Guyana, Ecuador, and Peru; Elaeis 1 sp. native to Honduras S to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, N Brazil, French Guiana, and Suriname and intro to El Salvador, Hispaniola, Trinidad-Tobago, and Windward Islands; Euterpe 8 spp. native to CAM (exc. El Salvador) and tropical SAM S to Peru, Bolivia, NE Argentina (exc. Uruguay); Gaussia 5 spp. native to the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Cuba, S Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala; Geonoma 68 spp. native to CAM (exc. El Salvador), Haiti, Lesser Antilles, and tropical SAM S to Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, and S Brazil; Hyospathe 4 spp. native from Costa Rica S to Peru, Bolivia, and N Brazil; Iriartea monospecific native from Nicaragua S to Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and N+C Brazil; Iriartella 2 spp. endemic to Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and W Brazil (Acre, Amazonas, Roraima, and Pará); Jubaea monospecific endemic to C Chile; Leopoldinia 2 spp. endemic to Colombia, Venezuela, and NW Brazil; Lytocaryum 4 spp. endemic to Brazil; Manicaria 2 spp. native to CAM (exc. El Salvador), Trinidad-Tobago, and tropical SAM S to Peru and N Brazil; Neonicholsonia monospecific endemic to Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama; Oenocarpus 10 spp. native from Costa Rica S to Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, and Trinidad-Tobago; Parajubaea 3 spp. endemic to the N Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia; Pholidostachys 7 spp. native to NW Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; Prestoea 10 spp. native to Nicaragua S to Peru, Bolivia, and N Brazil, exc. French Guiana and Suriname, also in the Greater Antilles; Reinhardtia 6 spp. native from S Mexico to the N tip of Colombia and 1 endemic to the SW Dominican Republic; Roystonea 10 spp. native to Caribbean Islands, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, and Venezuela, and introduced to El Salvador, Panama, Guyana; Syagrus 54 former SAM endemics native to tropical SAM S to Peru, Bolivia, and NE Argentina; Socratea 5 spp. endemic to Nicaragua S to Peru, Bolivia, N+NE Brazil; Synechanthus 2 spp. native to CAM (exc. El Salvador), Colombia, and Ecuador; Welfia 2 spp. native to Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; Wendlandiella monospecific endemic to Peru, Bolivia, and Acre, Brazil; Wettinia 22 spp. native to Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and NW Brazil, primarily at higher altitudes up to 2200m. Calamoideae: Calamus 1 sp. intro to Trinidad-Tobago; Lepidocaryum monospecific endemic to N SAM in Colombia, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela, and N Brazil; Mauritia 2 spp. endemic to tropical SAM, S to Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, also in Trinidad-Tobago; Mauritiella 4 spp. native to tropical SAM, S to Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil, exc. French Guiana; Raphia 1 sp. native to Nicaragua S to Colombia, and N Brazil, and intro to Trinidad-Tobago. Ceroxyloideae: Ammandra monotypic endemic of Colombia and Ecuador, where it is endangered; Aphandra monotypic endemic of the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru; Ceroxylon 12 spp. endemic to the Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia in montane habitats up to over 3000m; Juania monospecific endemic of Juan Fernández Islands; Phytelephas 6 spp. native to S Panama and along Andes to Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia, NW Brazil, and Peru; Pseudophoenix 4 spp. of Hispaniola (3 endemics), the Greater Antilles, Windward Islands, Bahamas, and Belize. Coryphoideae: Acoelorraphe monotypic endemic native to CAM, the Caribbean, Colombia, and the Bahamas; Brahea 3 spp. native to Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua; Chelyocarpus 4 NW SAM endemics of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and N Brazil; Coccothrinax 52 spp. native throughout the Caribbean, the Bahamas, Colombia, Belize, and Venezuela, most spp. are endemic to Cuba; Colpothrinax 3 spp. endemic to Belize, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico Southwest, Nicaragua, and Panamá; Copernicia 28 spp. native to Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba (22 endemics), Dominican Republic, Haiti, Paraguay, Venezuela, and NE Argentina and introduced into the Netherlands Antilles and Trinidad-Tobago; Cryosophila 9 spp. native to CAM (exc. El Salvador) and N. Colombia and intro to Trinidad-Tobago; Hemithrinax 3 spp. endemic to E Cuba; Itaya monospecific endemic to Brazil, Colombia, and Peru; Leucothrinax monospecific endemic to the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Leeward Is., Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., and the Florida Keys; Phoenix 1 sp. intro to Bolivia, El Salvador, and parts of the Caribbean; Sabal ~10 spp. native throughout SAM, the Caribbean Islands, Colombia, and Venezuela; Schippia monospecific endemic to Belize and Guatemala; Thrinax 3 spp. endemic to the N Caribbean and most of Greater Antilles, Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua and intro to El Salvador and Trinidad-Tobago; Trithrinax 4 spp. SAM endemics of N Argentina, Bolivia, C+S Brazil, and Uruguay; Washingtonia 1 sp. intro to Bolivia and El Salvador; Zombia monospecific endemic of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles. Nypoideae: Nypa monospecific introduced to Guyana, Panamá, and Trinidad-Tobago.

Patagonia Genera Include:

Absent

Additional Information and References

• Visit Lyrae’s Dictionary of Botanical Terms to learn the terminology of botanists. Note that if you hover over most of the words in the articles, you can also get definitions from them there.
• Willis, Lyrae (Unpublished). Plant Families of North America. This is where all of the family descriptions come from. Below should be most of my references for this, along with my own personal observations throughout North America.
• Baker, W. J., Norup, M. V., Clarkson, J. J., Couvreur, T. L., Dowe, J. L., Lewis, C. E., Pintaud, J. C., Savolainen, V., Wilmot, T., & Chase, M. W. (2011). Phylogenetic relationships among arecoid palms (Arecaceae: Arecoideae). Annals of botany, 108(8), 1417–1432. https://doi.org/10.1093/aob/mcr020.
• Canadensys: Acadia University, Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre, University of Toronto Mississauga, University of British Columbia. http://data.canadensys.net/explorer (accessed 2020 – current)
• FNA (1993+). Flora of North America. https://floranorthamerica.org/Main_Page. Accessed 2022-current.
• GBIF.org (2020+), GBIF Home Page. Available from: https://www.gbif.org
• iNaturalist.org (2020+). https://www.inaturalist.org/. Accessed 2020-current.
• Naturalista: CONABIO http://www.naturalista.mx (Accessed 2020–current).
• Neotropikey: Milliken, W., Klitgård, B., & Baracat, A. eds. (2009+). Neotropikey: Interactive key and information resources for flowering plants of the Neotropics. www.kew.org/neotropikey.com (accessed 2020 – current).
• Palmweb – Palms of the World Online. https://palmweb.org/ – This site is considered the global authority on palms, with most other authoritative sites referring to it.
• Patagonia Wildflowers: Wildflower Identification Site. https://patagoniawildflowers.org/ Accessed throughout the fall of 2020.
• POWO (2019+). Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet: http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/
• Stevens, P. F. (2001+). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 14, July 2017 [more or less continuously updated since]. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/
• USDA, NRCS. 2020. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov, 2 June 2020). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC, USA; Accessed 2020-present.
• Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. (1992+). The Families of Flowering Plants: descriptions, illustrations, identification, and information retrieval. Version: 2nd May 2020. delta-intkey.com. Accessed spring through fall of 2020.
• WFO (2022): World Flora Online. Published on the Internet: http://www.worldfloraonline.org. Accessed Spring 2022 – current

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The information and the photos on this site are free to use for educational purposes, with proper attribution. For other uses, please contact me first.

You can cite this site as follows: Willis, Lyrae (2020+). Lyrae’s Nature Blog – Plant Families of North America. https://lyraenatureblog.com/.