Hyphaene is a genus of palms native to Africa, Madagascar, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent.Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant FamiliesKew Palms Checklist: Hyphaene Govaerts, R. & Dransfield, J. (2005). World Checklist of Palms: 1-223. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
The genus includes the Doum palm (H. thebaica). They are unusual among palms in having regular naturally branched trunks; most other palms are single-stemmed from the ground. In Swahili, it is called .
Species Hyphaene compressa H.Wendl. - eastern Africa from Ethiopia to Mozambique Hyphaene coriacea Gaertn. - eastern Africa from South Africa; Madagascar; Juan de Nova Island Hyphaene dichotoma (J.White Dubl. ex Nimmo) Furtado - India, Sri Lanka Hyphaene guineensis Schumach. & Thonn. - western and central Africa from Liberia to Angola Hyphaene macrosperma H.Wendl. - Benin Hyphaene petersiana Klotzsch ex Mart. - southern and eastern Africa from South Africa to Tanzania Hyphaene reptans Becc. - Somalia, Kenya, Yemen Hyphaene thebaica (L.) Mart. - northeastern, central and western Africa from Egypt to Somalia and west to Senegal and Mauritania; Middle East (Palestine, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Yemen)
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