Locality: Frederiksted, USVI

Abstract: The palm collection at the St. George Village Botanical Garden consists of about 50 species, mostly originating from the Caribbean. The collection was damaged in the hurricanes of 2017. Our plan is to replace the species that were lost in the storms and expand the collection to include more diversity of palms from the neighboring Caribbean islands.

Palms are symbolically important in the Caribbean, appearing on the coats of arms of several Caribbean nations and on the flag of the West Indies cricket team. In 2004, Carlo Morici reported that there are about 191 genera and 2339 species of Arecaceae, the palm family. Their distribution is biased toward islands - 36% of genera and 52% of species are found only on islands, while 32% of genera and 6% of species are found only on continents. Sixty-two percent of monotypic genera are found only on islands. Phytogeographically, the Caribbean region is often considered to include the coastal plains of the United States (including south Florida), Mexico (especially the Yucatan), Belize, Colombia and Venezuela. Most species either have a wide distribution which includes part of the Caribbean, or are endemic to the Greater Antilles. Of the islands in the Caribbean, Cuba has the most species of palm, followed by Hispaniola. The Windward and Leeward Islands have the fewest. The palm flora of Trinidad and Tobago consists primarily of species with a South American distribution. Three genera of palm are endemic to the Greater Antilles: Calyptronoma, Hemithrinax and Zombia. Although nearly ubiquitous in the region, the coconut (Cocos nucifera) is not native to the Caribbean. The Caribbean species in the genus Copernicia are all Greater Antillean endemics; two species are restricted to Hispaniola, while the others are restricted to Cuba.