Taxonomic and geographic scope

Identifying Commonly Cultivated Palms is a tool to aid the non-expert user in the identification of palms. Information is provided for 82 commonly cultivated palm species from 48 genera, but given the difficulty of separating palm species and the number of hybrids among them, you might only be able to determine the genus for a particular palm. Only adult palms (not seedlings or pre-reproductive juvenile palms) are included in the key and descriptions. The key is illustrated with hundreds of images of species and their characteristics or features.

This tool provides identification support for palms that are commonly cultivated, as of 2010, in the United States (continental U.S. and Hawaii) and Caribbean Islands (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Saint Barts, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Virgin Islands).