Palm Arecaceae

The palm family (Arecaceae or Palmae) is a family of the palm family (Arecales) within the monocotyledons (monocotyledonous plants). The representatives of the palm family are very diverse. They can be small, medium-sized or large (up to 60 m trunk height in the case of the Quindio wax palm), stand alone or in groups (clusters), are armed or unarmed. They may flower several times in a lifetime (pleonanth) or only once in a lifetime (hapaxanth).

The stem is "woody". It is slender to massive, very short to very tall, it can be creeping, underground, climbing or erect. Normally the trunk is unbranched above ground, rarely it is dichotomously branched. The trunk lacks a cambium, palms therefore do not have secondary thickness growth, which is why they are not classified as trees. However, diffuse thickness growth occurs in some palms. The internodes are short to long. The leaf scars are conspicuous to inconspicuous. Stelar roots occur in some palms.

Along with the shoot axis and the root, the leaf is one of the three basic organs of higher plants and is called a phylloma as an organ type. Leaves are lateral outgrowths at the nodes (nodi) of the shoot axis. The original functions of leaves are photosynthesis (building up organic matter with the help of light) and transpiration (evaporation of water, is important for nutrient uptake and transport). Leaves only occur in shoot plants, i.e. fern-like plants (Pteridophyta) and seed plants (Spermatophyta). In contrast, they are absent in mosses and algae, on whose thallus, however, leaf-like structures can appear, which, however, are only to be regarded as analogues of leaves. The richness of leaf forms is enormous. In some cases, leaf organs developed in the course of evolution that no longer have anything to do with the original function of the leaf (usually deciduous leaf or conifer), namely photosynthesis and transpiration: for example, petals, leaf spines and leaf tendrils, as well as bud scales.