English: Palm family; Palms; Palm trees; Palmae.
Dutch: palms.
Botany: 205 genera, 2500 species.
DD: Silicon;
Iron series.
Clades:
Arecales;
Liliidae;
Lilianae; Angiopsermae;
Plants.
Genera: 181 genera; ± 2600 species.
Use: foods; Ornamental.
Culture: symbol for victory, peace, fertility, vacations
Botany: tropical, subtropical; rainforests to deserts; leaves large, compound, evergreen, known as fronds, spirally arranged at the top of an unbranched stem, with tubular sheath at the base; inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity; flowers small, white, radially symmetric, uni-sexual or bisexual; sepals and petals usually number three each, distinct or joined at the base; stamens six, filaments separate or attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base; fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe, sometimes berry-like.
TaxonomyIt is the only family in the order of the
Arecales, the Order of the palm trees. The name can be confused with the
Araceae, the Arum family, with
Acoraceae, the family of Acorus and with
Aceraceae, the Acer family which is now incorporated in the
Sapindaceae.