Acrocomia aculeata(Jacq.) Lodd. ex Mart.

grugru palm

WFO wfo-0000486739 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Ashwin Srinivasan
fig. a Ashwin Srinivasan, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-12-28 / obs. 174991286
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. b Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 105056322
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. c Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61408515
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. d Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 60105878
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Tereso Hernández Morales
fig. e Tereso Hernández Morales, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 41521732
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña
fig. f Juan Carlos Pérez Magaña, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 26484292
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Tereso Hernández Morales
fig. g Tereso Hernández Morales, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 21233574
Acrocomia aculeata, photographed by Yolanda M. Leon
fig. h Yolanda M. Leon, CC0 1.0 / obs. 12892109

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 28 botanical countries

Regions where Acrocomia aculeata is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Acrocomia aculeata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 1,059 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 12.2 °C 18.7 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.9 °C 30.2 °C 34.1 °C
Annual rainfall 1,063 mm 1,593 mm 3,130 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 15 mm 78 mm 278 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 1,059 research-grade observations of Acrocomia aculeata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 45 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acrocomia antiguana L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia antioquiensis Posada-Ar.
  • Acrocomia belizensis L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia christopherensis L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia chunta Covas & Ragonese
  • Acrocomia cubensis Lodd. ex H.Wendl.
  • Acrocomia erioacantha Barb.Rodr.
  • Acrocomia fusiformis (Sw.) Sweet
  • Acrocomia glaucophylla Drude
  • Acrocomia globosa (Gaertn.) Lodd. ex Mart.
  • Acrocomia grenadana L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia guianensis Lodd. ex G.Don
  • Acrocomia horrida Lodd. ex Mart.
  • Acrocomia hospes L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia ierensis L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia karukerana L.H.Bailey
  • Acrocomia lasiospatha Mart.
  • Acrocomia media O.F.Cook
  • Acrocomia mexicana Karw. ex Mart.
  • Acrocomia microcarpa Barb.Rodr.
  • Acrocomia minor Lodd. ex G.Don
  • Acrocomia mokayayba Barb.Rodr.
  • Acrocomia odorata Barb.Rodr.
  • Acrocomia panamensis L.H.Bailey

and 21 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol ACME2. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.