Commemorates Tycho Brahe (1546–1601), Danish astronomer.
Solitary or occasionally clustering, sometimes spiny palms. Crownshaft absent. Leaves costapalmate, often waxy, divided nearly to the middle. Leaflets narrow, erect or drooping, the tip quite deeply divided. Leaf stalks smooth, spiny or toothed. Leaf sheaths becoming fibrous. Flowers bisexual. Panicles as long as or much longer than the leaves. Fruit mostly round to ovoid, dark blue to brown or black. [Erythea S.Watson]
Slow growing and moderately popular in cultivation. They are generally hardy palms which make attractive specimen plants.
Seed germinates erratically over 2-12 months.
Some species have edible flesh around the seed and the leaves are used for thatch.
Fan-leaved palms usually with a stout woody trunk; slender panicles as long as or longer than the leaves; small round to ovoid, dark blue to brown or black fruit.
16 species distributed in Baja California, Mexico and Central America.
Bailey (1937 a, b, 1943).
Source: (2005). Arecaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.
