Ceroxylon
genus of plants
Ceroxylon is a genus of flowering plants in the family Arecaceae, native to the Andes in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, known as Andean wax palms.
The species are almost exclusively montane and include the tallest palm (and thus tallest monocotyledon), C. quindiuense, which reaches 61 m (200 ft) in height, and species growing at the highest altitude of the palm family (Arecaceae), at more than 3,000 m (10,000 ft) in elevation.
The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós ("wax") and ξύλον (xúlon, "wood").
Taxonomy
Ceroxylon is most closely related to the genus Oraniopsis, which is restricted to northern Australia. The common ancestor of both genera likely dispersed across the Antarctic land bridge during the Late Eocene.
Description
Ceroxylon palms develop single, smooth, wax-covered, often whitish cylindrical trunks encircled by ringed leafbase scars. Ceroxylon species are dioecious (the individual plant produces flowers of only one sex). Leaves are pinnate. Inflorescences emerge from among, and often project conspicuously beyond the leaves. Round fruits, up to one inch in diameter, are red or orange at maturity.
“Ceroxylon” enters the record as genus of plants. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Ceroxylon, genus and plants can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Ceroxylon” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Ceroxylon, genus and plants provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 23, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q137815. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ceroxylon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.