''Adonidia'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the family

Arecaceae The Arecaceae () is a family (biology), family of perennial plant, perennial, flowering plants in the Monocotyledon, monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbing palm, climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly k ...

, native to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

History of the genus

The genus was originally described in 1919. In 1957, it was transferred to the genus '' Veitchia''. In 2008, further study returned it to its own genus. Thus, some older photos from the 1957-2008 period use ''Veitchia'' instead of ''Adonidia''. Another similar palm, the genus '' Manjekia maturbongsii'' was first described in 2012 as ''Adonidia maturbongsii'',W.J.Baker & Heatubun, Palms (1999+) 56: 134 (2012). but in 2014 it was moved to its own genus, '' Manjekia''.

Current status

At present there are two recognized species.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families, ''Adonidia''
/ref> The first, and better known, is the Manila palm ('' Adonidia merrillii''), which is native to the Philippines (

Palawan Palawan (, ), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...

and Danjugan Island) and is reportedly naturalized in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. The second is '' Adonidia dransfieldii'', native to

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

in Borneo and first described in 2015. Some palms sold in retail outlets as "''Adonidia''" are in fact Alexander palms, which are similar but even thinner. Image:Fruits of Royal Palm.JPG, Fruits of a dwarf royal palm or Christmas palm (''Adonidia merrillii'') photographed in Ghana Image:ArecaceaeDSC9180 01.jpg, Palm and fruits. Cultivar, Bahia, Brazil

References

Ptychospermatinae Arecaceae genera Taxa named by Odoardo Beccari Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Areceae-stub