- Formerly known as:
- Palmae
- Related Topics:
- Colpothrinax
- Geonoma
- Ceroxylon
- Serenoa
- Raphia
palm
-
What is a palm tree?
A palm is any member of the Arecaceae family, the only family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the order Arecales. Palms are found mainly in tropical and subtropical regions. They have great economic importance; for centuries, they have provided humans in the tropics with necessities, and native palm products substantially contribute to local economies. Palms are planted for ornament in warm regions or indoors to create a tropical look.
Palms have an extended early vegetative phase because the stem reaches its maximum girth before growing upward. Unlike broad-leaved plants, palms can't grow a thicker trunk and possess only one growing point.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
Where can palm trees usually be found?
Palm trees are mainly located in America and Asia, from India to Japan, extending south to Australia and the Pacific and Indian Ocean islands. Africa and Madagascar are also notable palm regions.
These areas usually fall between 44° N and 44° S latitudes, with the highest concentration between 30° N and 30° S. These regions typically have mean annual temperatures of 15 to 21 °C (60 to 70 °F) and at least 500 mm (20 inches) of rainfall per year.
Palms have adapted to various habitats within their geographical boundaries, such as tropical forests, mountain and cloud forests, swamps, poorly drained areas, brackish estuaries, lagoons, deserts, and seashores with underground water.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What do the leaves of a palm tree look like?
Palm leaves exhibit diverse characteristics in size, shape, and division. Most palm leaves feature a sheath, a petiole (leafstalk), and a blade. The sheath can be elongated or tubular, sometimes forming what is known as a crownshaft, which appears as a continuation of the stem. Above the sheath, the petiole acts as a supporting axis without leaflets.
The blade, or terminal portion, is typically plicate (folded like a fan) and can be either pinnate (feather-like) or palmate (fan-like). Pinnate leaves have distinct pinnae (leaflets) or can be bipinnate, while palmate leaves have segments radiating from a central region at the tip of the petiole. Some leaves have spines or marginal teeth on the sheath, petiole, or blade.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How are palm trees different from other types of trees?
Palm trees differ from other trees due to unique morphological and structural characteristics. Unlike broad-leaved trees, palms lack the ability to thicken their trunks because they do not have a cambium layer. Instead, palm stems are composed of numerous conducting strands scattered within softer tissue, providing resilience against strong winds.
Palm leaves have a sheath, a petiole (leafstalk), and a blade that is either pinnate (feather-like) or palmate (fan-like). The inflorescence, which bears the flowers, can vary from a large, complex panicle to a reduced head or spikelike axis.
Furthermore, palms have a unique leaf development process where the compound nature of the leaves arises from a single meristem, unlike other flowering plants where each pinna develops from a separate meristem.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What are some products that come from palm trees?
Palm trees offer a wide array of products with substantial economic value. Coconuts are perhaps the most versatile, providing coir for ropes and mats from the husk and fuel and utensils from the hard inner layer. The liquid endosperm is a refreshing beverage, while the flesh can be eaten raw or dried into copra, a source of oil used in food and industry. The flower stalk sap yields sugar, alcohol, and vinegar.
The African oil palm is another crucial source of vegetable oil and fat. Palm oil, extracted from the fruit, is used in soaps, cosmetics, and biofuels, while palm kernel oil, from the seeds, is used in edible products like margarine and chocolate. Additionally, palm leaves are used for thatching and weaving hats and fans.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How do palm trees help both the environment and people?
Palm trees provide economic value and are extensively used for decorative purposes in warm regions. They also play a crucial role in tropical forest ecosystems.
Palm trees contribute to the environment and people in several ways:
- Economic uses Palms provide necessities for humans in the tropics, and native palm products contribute substantially to local economies.
- Habitats Palms have adapted to many habitats within their geographical limits.
- Carbon Sequestration Like other plants, palms use carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, which helps to remove this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
- Soil Improvement Palm roots aerate waterlogged soils, and the decomposition of dead palms contributes to soil fertility.
2 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
palm, (family Arecaceae), family of nearly 190 genera and more than 2,450 species of monocotyledonous flowering plants (order Arecales). Members of the palm family are of major ecological importance to many tropical ecosystems and provide food and habitat to a wide range of wildlife. Economically, palms supply a number of globally significant products, including coconut, dates, acai, palm oil and other oils, fibers, and building materials, and are of practical and cultural importance to local communities around the world. The family is fourth among monocotyledonous families in size, after the Orchidaceae (orchids), Poaceae (grasses), and Cyperaceae (sedges), and includes some of the largest angiosperm leaves (raffia palm [Raphia]), inflorescences (talipot palm [Corypha umbraculifera]), and seeds (double coconut [Lodoicea maldivica]).
Distribution
The great centers of palm distribution are in America and in Asia from India to Japan and south to Australia and the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans, with Africa and Madagascar as a third but much less important palm region. These centers are bounded roughly by latitudes 44° N and 44° S, though the greatest abundance lies primarily between latitudes 30° N and 30° S. These distributions correspond more or less with zones having mean annual temperatures of 15 and 21 °C (60 and 70 °F) and, with rare exceptions, to areas having 500 mm (20 inches) or more of rainfall per year.
The northernmost palm is the European fan palm (Chamaerops humilis), which grows about the Mediterranean in Europe and North Africa; the southernmost is the nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida), of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands. Although there are species with extensive ranges, especially in America, most are restricted in range, and those of islands, in particular, are frequently found nowhere else. One species, Maxburretia gracilis, is limited to a few limestone outcroppings in the Langkawi Islands off the Malay Peninsula. The island of New Caledonia has 17 genera and 32 species of palms, all of them endemic. The palms of Madagascar are not yet well known, but 130 species belonging to 21 genera are recorded and at least 14 of the genera are found only on the island. No species, except the European fan palm and the pantropical cultivated coconut (Cocos nucifera), occurs on more than one continent; the genera transcending continental bounds are Chamaerops in Europe and Africa, Elaeis (oil palm) and Raphia (raffia palm, or jupati) in Africa and America, and Borassus (palmyra palm), Calamus (rattan palm), Hyphaene (doum palm), and Phoenix (date palm) in Africa and Asia. Numbers of individuals of a species may be few or many.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
(Read Britannicaâs article âAre Chunga Palms Really Dangerous?â)
Centers of abundance in numbers of species occur in mixed tropical and subtropical forests in both the American and the Asian tropics. The lowland rainforests of New Guinea and the Sunda Islands and the rainforests of Central and South America are richest in palm species. The ChocĂł region of western Colombia and parts of the island of Borneo have extraordinary numbers of palms. In the Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia, an area of rainforest spanning about 52,864 hectares, has 111 species representing 20 genera. In the western part of the Antioquia region of northwestern Colombia, 89 species representing 34 genera of palms occur in an area of 19,000 square km (7,300 square miles). It is noteworthy that palms are not the dominant elements in these forests. Large stands of single species do dominate certain types of vegetation in the tropics and subtropics. The carnauba wax palm (Copernicia alba) occurs in solid stands hundreds of square kilometers in extent in the northeastern section of the Paraguayan Chaco Boreal and adjacent Bolivia and Brazil, the largest stands in this region alone containing possibly 500 million plants.
In the eastern tropics, Nypa fruticans may form dense colonies on estuarine muds; these pure stands of nipa palm (Nypa) extend for hundreds of hectares in eastern Sumatra and parts of Borneo. In other situations, dicotyledonous mangrove species occur with the nipa palm. The genus Manicaria (bussu palm) occupies similar habitats in some New World areas. Palms are dominant in another type of vegetation on the landward fringe of mangrove swamps in the western Malay Archipelago, where Oncosperma tigillarium and Calamus erinaceus (and, in Borneo, Daemonorops longispathus) are found. In the Amazon estuary Raphia taedigera covers extensive areas; other species of the raffia palm dominate similar habitats in West Africa. The raffia palm occurs in nearly pure stands between marsh and dicotyledonous swamp forests along the Caribbean and Pacific coasts of Costa Rica, and Mauritia flexuosa is found in vast stands in inland parts of the Amazon basin. On riverine flats and coastal plains of Africa, Hyphaene compressa and Borassus aethiopum occur, often in great abundance. Freshwater swamplands in parts of New Guinea are dominated by Metroxylon sagu. Both the doum palm and the sago palm (Metroxylon) are useful, and their distribution may be due in part to human activities. Eugeissona utilis grows in dense local stands to the exclusion of other trees in the uplands of Borneo. The vegetation dominated by Prestoea montana is distinctive in the montane forests of the Caribbean. Many of these palms are economically useful, and their natural or seminatural stands may be immensely important in local economies.
The abundance of palms may also be considered in relation to numbers of species per genus, in that a few palm genera have large numbers of species. Calamus with about 379 is the largest and Bactris (the peach palm) with approximately 239 is second. Several other genera, Licuala, Pinanga, Chamaedorea, and Daemonorops, have more than 100 species each. Nearly a third of the genera (64), however, have only a single species, and more than half have fewer than 5 species each. The small number of species per genus reflects the large amount of endemism in the family.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
