Elaeis oleifera

American oil palm
American Oil Palm (Elaeis oleifera)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Family:	Arecaceae
Subfamily:	Arecoideae
Tribe:	Cocoeae
Genus:	Elaeis
Species:	E. oleifera
Binomial name
Elaeis oleifera (Kunth) Cortés
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]

References

1. "The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species". Retrieved 4 June 2015.
2. "USDA GRIN Taxonomy".
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).