Abstract

Palms are an important group among monocots which are of immense service to mankind. Besides the common cultivated palms like coconut, araacanut, oil palm, rattans and over a dozen introduced ornamental palms, there are seven species of wild and semi-wild palms presently found in Kerala State. Of these, Borassus flabellifer, Caryota urens and Corypha umbraculifera are widely exploited in the State. The remaining, namely, Arenga wightii, Bentinckia condapanna, Phoenix humilis and Pinanga dickssonii are also becoming endangered due to habitat destruction. This paper highlights the ecological and distributional aspects and discusses appropriate conservation measures to be adopted to augument the palm resources of the State