Areca, Cyrtostachys, Dypsis, Howeia and Roystonea are frequently cultivated, Cocus is the coconut, and Phytelephas is the vegetable ivory. Herbs or sometimes shrubs of mainly wet places with a spadix subtended by a spathe bearing small or minute flowers that often lack a perianth. Widespread but mainly tropical and subtropical. Some are poisonous. Calla is sometimes cultivated for its inflorescences.
Pistia is aquatic and often fouls waterways.
Small or minute floating or submerged aquatic herbs rarely producing flowers that lack a perianth. Widespread but mainly in temperate regions.