Phoenix  

Shrubby, creeping to large palm, solitary or clustered, dioecious. Stem with spirally, arranged closely inserted leaf bases. Leaf sheath dissolving in fibrous mesh; petiole short to elongate; blade pinnately dvided in single-folded, induplicate leaflets, regularly arranged in one plane or grouped in various ways and pointing in different directions, the proximal ones modified as spines.  Inflorescence interfoliar, branching to 1 order, male and female inflorescence more or less similar until anthesis; peduncle flattened, elongating in female inflorescence after anthesis, peduncular and rachis bracts strongly reduced and inconspicuous; rachillae numerous, often inserted in groups along the rachis, with spirally arranged solitary flowers. Male flower ovoid in bud, with sepals connate to a low cupule; petals free, much longer than the calyx; stamens (3–)6(–9), free or shortly adnate to corolla, with short filament and elongate anther, oistillode lacking; female flower globose, about ½ the length of the male flower, petals about twice as long as the calyx cupule, staminodes reduced and inconspicuous; carpels three, free, with short, narrow recurved stigma. Infructescence long pedunculate. Fruit usually developing from one carpel, ovoid to oblong; epicarp smooth, mesocarp fleshy; endocarp membranous. Seed with homogeneous endosperm in Thai species. Germination remote tubular.

Fourteen species in Africa, Crete to W. & C. Malesia (Barrow 1998). Three species in Thailand.