Licuala is a genus of palms

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 commonly found in tropical rainforest

Tropical rainforest

A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...

s of southern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

, New Guinea

New Guinea

New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...

 and the western Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 islands. They are fan palms, with the leaves mostly circular in outline, sometimes undivided but more usually divided into wedge-shaped segments. Licuala acutifida is the source of cane for the walking stick nicknamed the Penang-lawyer by colonials, probably from the Malay phrase pinang liyar for a wild areca

Areca

Areca is a genus of about 50 species of single-stemmed palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from Malaysia to the Solomon Islands. The generic name Areca is derived from a name used locally on the Malabar Coast of India....

, although the term may also refer to the use of these canes as deadly knobkerries to assassinate litigious enemies.
Selected species

• Licuala acutifida
• Licuala dasyantha
  Licuala dasyantha
  Licuala dasyantha is a species of palm tree in the Arecaceae family.-Distribution:Licuala dasyantha is found only in and endemic to China. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests....
  
  
• Licuala grandis
  Licuala grandis
  Licuala grandis, the Ruffled Fan Palm, Vanuatu Fan Palm or Palas Palm is a species of palm tree in the Arecaceae family, native to Vanuatu, an island in the Pacific.-References:* * *...
  
  
• Licuala lauterbachii
• Licuala orbicularis
  Licuala orbicularis
  Licuala orbicularis is a species of palm in the genus Licuala.It is endemic to the island of Borneo....
  
  
• Licuala paludosa
• Licuala pitta Vatch. ex Barfod & Pongsattayapipat
• Licuala peltata
• Licuala poonsakii Hodel
• Licuala pumila
• Licuala ramsayi
• Licuala rumphii
• Licuala spinosa
  Licuala spinosa
  Licuala spinosa, the Mangrove Fan Palm, is a species of palm in the genus Licuala.-Cultivation:It is grown as an ornamental plant in subtropical climates, such as in California....
  
  
• Licuala taynguyensis Barfod & Borchs.

New Guinean Species

• Licuala beccariana
• Licuala bifida Heatubun & Barfod
• Licuala crassiflora Barfod
• Licuala graminifolia Heatubun & Barfod
• Licuala longispadix Banka & Barfod