Palms are the big game of the plant world, hiding secrets in their leaves.

Gardening · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Arecales is an order of flowering plants comprising nearly 190 genera and over 2,450 species of palms. These woody monocots are essential to tropical ecosystems and human economies, yet their massive size and extreme hardness made them notoriously difficult for early botanists to study and classify for centuries.

The order Arecales contains only one family, Arecaceae, formerly known as Palmae. While most monocots are herbaceous, palms are characteristically woody. They are the fourth largest monocot family, trailing only the Orchidaceae, Poaceae, and Cyperaceae. Their fossil record is one of the most extensive among monocots, stretching back 80 million years to the Late Cretaceous Period. Despite their prominence, palms remained poorly understood until the advent of modern air travel allowed researchers to explore remote tropical regions, where many species exist as island endemics.

Palms are biological outliers with unique structural features. Unlike other flowering plants, their compound leaves develop from a single meristem that forms a plicated blade, which then undergoes lateral cell degradation to create separate pinnae. They also possess specialized silica-bearing cells called stegmata and lack the sympodial branching found in their relatives. Their reproductive structures are equally impressive; they produce some of the largest inflorescences and seeds on Earth, such as the massive coco de mer.

Economically, palms are second only to grasses in importance among monocots. They provide vital resources ranging from food—such as coconuts, dates, and oils—to construction materials, waxes, and stimulants like the betel nut. Taxonomists have long debated their placement, initially grouping them with families like Araceae based on superficial similarities. However, modern DNA analysis and studies of epicuticular waxes have clarified their evolutionary history, linking them to the commelinid clade. Recent research even suggests that the Australian family Dasypogonaceae may be a close relative, sharing specific ultraviolet-fluorescent compounds in their cell walls.

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