Palm trees

Palmea, the palm tree family

ARECACEA, otherwise known as Palmea, is a family consisting of more than 5000 species of plants. All belong to the monocot order, meaning that as seedlings the plants have a single leaf (cotyledon), as opposed to plants of the bicot order, which have two leaves as seedlings and are called dicotyledons. The monocot order is further divided into six families:

• Coryphoideae - lobed leaves, solitary flowers
• Calamoideae - includes climbing palms such as Rattans
• Nypoideae - only one palm, Nypa fruticans which has a floating seed
• Ceroxyloideae - beautiful spiral flowers
• Arecoideae - the largest family, it contains more than 100 genera. These palms have pinnate (pointed) leaves and flowers arranged in groups of three
• Phytelephotoideae - distinct monopodial flower clusters