Palm Wallpapers

People Palm, Gala wallpapers:
Arecaceae (sometimes known by the names Palmae or Palmaceae, although the latter name is taxonomically invalid.), the Palm Family, is a family of flowering plants belonging to the monocot order, Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical or subtropical climates. Of all the families of plants, the Arecaceae is the most easily recognizable as distinct by most persons. Most palms are distinguished by their large, compound, evergreen leaves arranged at the top of an unbranched stem. However, many palms are exceptions to this statement, and palms in fact exhibit an enormous diversity in physical characteristics. As well as being morphologically diverse, palms also inhabit nearly every type of habitat within their range, from rainforests to deserts.
Palms are one of the most well-known and extensively cultivated plant families. They have had an important role to humans throughout much of history. Many common products and foods are derived from palms, and palms are also widely used in landscaping for their exotic appearance, making them one of the most economically important plants. In many historical cultures, palms were symbols for such ideas as victory, peace, and fertility. Today, palms remain a popular symbol for the tropics and vacations.
The overwhelming majority of palms live in the tropics. Palms are abundant throughout the tropical regions around the world, and are present in almost every type of habitat in the tropics. Diversity is highest in wet, lowland tropical forests, especially in ecological hotspots such as Madagascar, which has more endemic palms than the entire continental Africa. Colombia may have the highest number of palm species in one country. It is estimated that only 130 palm species grow naturally beyond the tropics, most of which grow in the subtropics. The northernmost palm is Chamaerops humilis, which reaches 44°N latitude in southern France where a mediterranean climate makes weather milder than other places as far north. The southernmost palm is the Rhopalostylis sapida, which reaches 44°S on the Chatham Islands where an oceanic climate has a similar warming effect.
The growth habit of palms is usually a straight, unbranched stem, and rarely a dichotomous branching stem or a creeping vine-like habit (liana). They have large evergreen leaves that are either palmately (fan-leaved) or pinnately (feather-leaved) compound and spirally arranged at the top of the stem. The leaves have a tubular sheath at the base that usually splits open on one side at maturity. The inflorescence is a panicle or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity. The flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and may be bisexual or unisexual. The sepals and petals usually number three each and may be distinct or joined at the base. The stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe, but some genera (e.g. Salacca) may contain two or more seeds in each fruit. Palms inhabit a variety of habitats. Over two-thirds of palms live in tropical forests, where some species grow tall enough to form part of the canopy and other shorter palms adapted to shade form part of the understory. Some species form pure stands in areas with poor drainage or regular flooding, including Raphia hookeri which is common in coastal freshwater swamps in West Africa. Other palms live in tropical montane habitats above 1000 meters, such as those in the genus Ceroxylon native to the Andes. Palms may also live in grasslands and scrublands, usually associated with a water source, and in desert oases such as the Date Palm. A few palms are adapted to extremely basic lime soils, while others are similarly adapted to very acidic serpentine soils. Arecaceae is notable for having the individual trees with the largest seed, largest leaf, largest inflorescence, as well as the tallest individual monocot. The Coco de mer (Lodoicea maldivica) has the largest seeds of any plant, 40-50 centimeters in diameter and weighing 15-30 kilograms each. Raffia palms (Raphia spp.), with leaves up to 25 meters long and 3 meters wide, have the largest leaves of any plant. The Corypha species have the largest inflorescence of any plant, up to 7.5 meters tall and containing millions of small flowers. Ceroxylon quindiuense, Colombias national tree, is the tallest monocot in the world, reaching heights of 60 meters.
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