palm

Coconuts ripening on the palm. A versatile fruit with many uses, the coconut's outer husk of fibres is used to make matting and rope; the white flesh of the fruit can be eaten raw, or dried to produce copra from which coconut oil is extracted, which in turn is used in the manufacture of soaps and margarine.

Collecting palm juice in Myanmar (Burma). The ‘toddy’ palm produces a juice from its leafy top; this is non-alcoholic to begin with, but it soon ferments into a weak intoxicating liquor.

The male flower of the coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica), also known as the double coconut or Seychelles nut palm. It grows uniquely on Praslin, the second-largest of the Seychelles islands. The fruit can weigh up to 20 kg/44 lb and contains the largest seed in the plant kingdom.

The female flower of the coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica), also known as the double coconut or Seychelles nut palm. The Vallée de Mai, on the island of Praslin in the Seychelles, where the densest stands of these trees can be found, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The tree is also known as the double coconut or double nut, a reference to its strange double seed, the largest seed in the plant kingdom.

Any of a group of large treelike plants with a single tall stem that has a thick cluster of large palmate (five-lobed) leaves or pinnate leaves (leaflets either side of the stem) at the top. Most of the numerous species are tropical or subtropical. Some, such as the coconut, date, sago, and oil palms, are important economically. (Family Palmae.)

Several palms are native to Florida.

The small palm tree Willmania carinensis is confined to Djibouti, Somalia, and Yemen, growing along river valleys. Although cultivated, it is now extremely rare and endangered in the wild. The main threats come from grazing by cattle and sheep, and from felling for building timber; the palm is one of the few trees producing straight and durable timber in the area.