palm tree
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 called palm ...
native to
Central America
Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...
, the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
.
It was formerly widely harvested in Ecuador for palmito. However, the palm is now uncommon due to overharvesting and is no longer commercially harvested on a large scale.
Subspecies
Three subspecies are accepted:
* ''Prestoea acuminata'' var. ''acuminata'' – Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago.
* ''Prestoea acuminata'' var. ''dasystachys'' (Burret) A.J.Hend. & Galeano – Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.
* ''Prestoea acuminata'' var. ''montana'' (Graham) A.J.Hend. & Galeano – Synonym ''