Acanthophoenix is a genus of flowering plants in the palm family from the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean, where they are commonly called palmiste rouge. A genus long in flux, three species are currently recognized, though unsustainable levels of harvesting for their edible palm hearts have brought them all to near extinction in habitat. They are closely related to the Tectiphiala and Deckenia genera, differing in the shape of the staminate flower.[2] The name combines the Greek words for “thorn” and “date palm”.[3]
The solitary trunks are robust and conspicuously ringed, sparsely armed in youth, with a slightly swollen base. The tubular leaf bases wrap the trunk, forming a 60 – 90 cm crownshaft covered in hairy tomentum and spines. The leaves are pinnate, 2 m long, and borne on a tomentose petiole, sparsely to densely spiny. The leaflets emerge from the hairy rachis in a flat plane, dark green above and lighter below, to 30 cm long, once-folded with a red or yellow, toothed midrib.
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