''Socratea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of five

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of palms found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

Central America and South America.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
/ref> It is commonly believed that ''Socratea'' can move away from where it germinated by growing roots on one side and abandoning them on the other. Attempts to detect this behavior have failed. What is known for a fact is that these roots can, in the case of S. montana, grow to a length of 16.5 feet (five meters) and up to three inches (eight cm) in diameter. * ''

Socratea exorrhiza ''Socratea exorrhiza'', the walking palm or cashapona, is a palm native to rainforests in tropical Central and South America. It can grow to 25 metres in height, with a stem diameter of up to 16 cm, but is more typically 15–20 m tall ...

'' (Mart.) H.Wendl. - Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, northern and western Brazil (States of Amazonas, Amapá, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima) * '' Socratea hecatonandra'' (Dugand) R.Bernal - Colombia, Ecuador * '' Socratea montana'' R.Bernal & A.J.Hend. - Colombia, Ecuador * '' Socratea rostrata'' Burret - Peru, Colombia, Ecuador * '' Socratea salazarii'' H.E.Moore - Peru, Bolivia, western Brazil (State of Acre)

References

External links

* http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151207-ecuadors-mysterious-walking-trees Arecaceae genera Iriarteeae Neotropical realm flora Taxa named by Gustav Karl Wilhelm Hermann Karsten {{palm-stub