Tallest living palm tree

Monocots are a group of angiosperms (flowering plants) that lack cambium – lateral meristem tissue that allows for continued diameter and height growth. Palm trees, for example, grow by adding leaves at the top of the stem, so the ability to increase in diameter is very limited. Due to this, of the 2,500+ species of palm only a handful are able grow past 40 m (131 ft) tall. Since the 1800s, the Quindío wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense) has long been regarded as the world’s tallest palm species. Since then, however, actual measurements on specific trees were difficult to find – until recently. A team led by Colombian botanist and palm specialist Rodrigo Bernal in 2017 measured wax palms 57.1 m (187 ft 4 in) and 59.2 m (194 ft 2.7 in) tall in La Carbonera in the Tochecito River valley in a coffee-growing region of Colombia, some 300 km (185 mi) west of the capital, Bogotá.

Historical accounts of this species report similar and even greater heights, including 58 m/190 ft 3.5 in (Bonpland, 1804), 61 m/200 ft 1.6 in (Karsten, 1858) and 60 m/196 ft 10.2 in (Andre, 1879).

The next tallest-growing palm tree species is Roystonea oleracea, native to the Caribbean and north-east South America, reaching up to 57 m (187 ft). While in joint third place, Pigafetta elata and P. filaris from Sulawesi, Indonesia, to New Guinea, can both grow up to 50 m (164 ft) tall.