Carludovica palmataRuiz & Pav.

Panama Hat PlantPanama hat plant

WFO wfo-0000763027 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Carludovica palmata, photographed by Thalia M. Mite
fig. a Thalia M. Mite, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-26 / obs. 200757349
Carludovica palmata, photographed by Aitor
fig. b Aitor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 77459328
Carludovica palmata, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. c Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 73995805
Carludovica palmata, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. d Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 18177087
Carludovica palmata, photographed by desertnaturalist
fig. e desertnaturalist, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 71846730
Carludovica palmata, photographed by Robert Webster
fig. f Robert Webster, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 62677869
Carludovica palmata, photographed by Andrew J. Crawford
fig. g Andrew J. Crawford, CC0 1.0 / obs. 184467852
Carludovica palmata, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. h Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 120794963

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 15 botanical countries

Regions where Carludovica palmata is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Carludovica palmata, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT

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 699 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 15.1 °C 20.5 °C 24.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.7 °C 28.5 °C 32.4 °C
Annual rainfall 1,101 mm 2,774 mm 4,880 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 50 mm 254 mm 995 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 699 research-grade observations of Carludovica palmata 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 10 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.

  • Carludovica gigantea Kuntze
  • Carludovica humilis (Wawra & Bermann) Kuntze
  • Carludovica incisa H.Wendl.
  • Carludovica incisa var. wendlandii Wawra & Bermann
  • Carludovica jamaicensis Lodd. ex Fawcett & Harris
  • Carludovica palmata var. humilis Wawra & Bermann
  • Carludovica serrata Wawra & Bermann
  • Ludovia palmata (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers.
  • Salmia jamaicensis Steud.
  • Salmia palmata (Ruiz & Pav.) Willd.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.