Palms are one of the most distinctive and visually striking families of tropical plants.
They are of immense importance to humans, and many are planted or harvested for their useful products, or as ornaments. Think of coconut, oil palm, betel palm and rattans, or royal palms, sealing wax palm and talipot, to name a few. For wild palms the focus is on rain-forest species and these extend north of Malaya into the wetter parts of Thailand, Indochina and Myanmar. The palms grown as ornamentals or for use by villagers are found throughout both rain-forest and seasonal tropical Asia. This book therefore makes it easy to recognise the different wild and cultivated palms of Southeast Asia, using silhouette drawings, simple descriptions and photographs.