''Caryota'' is a genus of

palm trees The Arecaceae () is a family of perennial, flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are colloquially ...

. They are often known as fishtail palms because of the shape of their leaves. There are about 13 species native to Asia (China, India, Indonesia, etc.), northern Australia, and the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> One of the more widely known species is '' Caryota urens'', the flowers of which are used to make one type of

jaggery Jaggery is a List of unrefined sweeteners, traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar consumed in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, North America, Central America, Brazil and Africa. It is a concentrated product of Sugarcane juice, cane jui ...

(an unrefined sugar), and also to make

palm wine Palm wine, known by several #Names, local names, is an alcoholic beverage created from the sap of various species of palm trees such as the Borassus, palmyra, date palms, and coconut palms. It is known by various names in different regions and ...

. ''

Caryota mitis ''Caryota mitis'', known as the clustering fishtail palm or fishtail palm, is a species of palm native to Tropical Asia from India to Java to southern China, now sparingly naturalized in southern Florida and in parts of Africa and Latin America. ...

'' is native to

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

, but has become an invasive introduced species in the US state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. They are also one of the few

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 ...

with

bipinnate The following terms are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (that is, the leaf blade or 'lamina' is undivided) or compound (that is, the leaf blade is divided into two or more leaflets ...

foliage. Many grow in mountainous areas and are adapted to warm mediterranean climates as well as subtropical and tropical climates.Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Fishtail palms contain

raphide Raphides ( ; singular ''raphide'' or ''raphis'') are needle-shaped crystals of calcium oxalate monohydrate ( prismatic monoclinic crystals) or calcium carbonate as aragonite ( dipyramidal orthorhombic crystals), found in more than 200 familie ...

Species

Gallery

File:Fishtail palm.JPG, Fishtail palm at

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

File:Fishtail palm1.JPG, Fishtail palm at

File:Fishtail-palm-flower-detail.jpg, Fishtail palm flower in detail. File:Fishtail palm at Chandigarh.jpg, Fishtail palm at Chandigarh File:Fishtail palm - close up.jpg, Fishtail palm - close up File:Leaves of Fishtail palm tree.jpg, Leaves of fishtail palm tree File:Fishtail palm - detail.jpg, Fishtail palm - detail

References

External links

USDA Plants ProfileGRIN Species listPalm Guide
{{Authority control Arecaceae genera Garden plants of Asia Garden plants of Oceania Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus