What are Palm Trees?

About Palm Trees:

• Palm is any member of the Arecaceae, or Palmae, a single family of monocotyledonous flowering plants of the order Arecales.
• These evergreen plants can grow in the form of shrubs, trees, or long, woody vines called lianas.
• Distribution: The great centres 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 Madagascaras a third but much less important palm region. 
• They are characterized by a tall, unbranched stem or, rarely, by a dichotomous branching stem (Hyphaene), and of the same diameter all along from base to top; at the apex, they bear a rosette consisting of coriaceous, either palmate or pinnate, leaves, up to some meters long.
  • Palmate leaves, like hands, grow in a bunch at the end of a stem. Pinnate leaves are like feathers, growing all along either side of a stem.
• Though many species of palms are sturdy and plentiful, as many as 100 species are endangered due to deforestation and unsustainable cultivation practices, such as for the heart of palm, which comes from a part of the tree that cannot be regrown. 
• The palms with the greatest importance in world commerce are the coconut and the African oil palm(Elaeis guineensis); both are prime sources of vegetable oil and fat. 
• The rarest palm tree is the Hyophorbe amaricaulis. The only one left currently lives at the Botanic Gardens of Curepipe in Mauritius.