Elaeis oleifera

American oil palm
American oil palm (Elaeis oleifera)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Clade: Commelinids
Order: Arecales
Family: Arecaceae
Genus: Elaeis
Species:
E. oleifera
Binomial name
Elaeis oleifera
Synonyms[1]
  • Alfonsia oleifera Kunth
  • Corozo oleifera (Kunth) L.H.Bailey
  • Elaeis melanococca Mart. nom. illeg.

Elaeis oleifera is a species of palm commonly called the American oil palm. It is native to South and Central America from Honduras to northern Brazil.[2][3][4][5]

Unlike its relative Elaeis guineensis, the African oil palm, it is rarely planted commercially to produce palm oil, but hybrids between the two species are,[6] mainly in efforts to provide disease resistance and to increase the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids in the oil.[7]

  1. ^ "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species". Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  2. ^ "Elaeis oleifera". Germplasm Resources Information Network. Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
  3. ^ Bailey, Liberty Hyde. 1933. Gentes Herbarum; Occasional Papers on the Kinds of Plants 3(2): 59, f. 32, 35–40, Corozo oleifera
  4. ^ Cortés, Santiago. 1897. Flora de Colombia : comprende la geografia botanica de Colombia, las leguminosas, la flora terapiutica, 1: 203, Elaeis oleifera
  5. ^ Kunth, Karl Sigismund. 1816. Nova Genera et Species Plantarum (quarto ed.) 1: 307, Alfonsia oleifera
  6. ^ "Replanting diseased oil palm areas with Elaeis oleifera X E. guineensis hybrids at "La Arenosa" Estate in Colombia". Oil Palm News. 18: 1–8. 1974.
  7. ^ "Variation in the total of unsaturated fatty acids in oils extracted from different oil palm germplasms, Carmen E. Chávez and Francisco Sterling, ASD Oil Palm Papers, Volume 3 p. 5-8, 1991" (PDF).[permanent dead link]