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Licuala

Genus of palms

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Licuala is a genus of palms, in the tribe Trachycarpeae, commonly found in tropical forests of southern China, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, New Guinea and the western Pacific Ocean islands.

01Description and uses

Licuala spp. are fan palms, with the leaves mostly circular in outline, sometimes undivided but more usually divided into wedge-shaped segments. Licuala acutifida is the source of cane for the walking stick nicknamed the Penang-lawyer by colonials, probably from the Malay phrase pinang liyar for a wild areca, although the term may also refer to the use of these canes as deadly knobkerries to assassinate litigious enemies. Several species of Licuala have been transferred into a new genus Lanonia.

Licuala ramsayi
Licuala ramsayi

02Species

As of March 2026, Plants of the World Online accepts the following 149 species:

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Licuala, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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