Chamaedorea pinnatifrons(Jacq.) Oerst.

WFO wfo-0000838907 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. a Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-24 / obs. 43584995
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. b Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10840182
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. c Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 75586579
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Thalia M. Mite
fig. d Thalia M. Mite, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200726969
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Thalia M. Mite
fig. e Thalia M. Mite, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200512747
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by julianazuluaga-carrero
fig. f julianazuluaga-carrero, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 175843009
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. g Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10188618
Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31087385

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 17 botanical countries

Regions where Chamaedorea pinnatifrons is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Chamaedorea pinnatifrons, 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 Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
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 317 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.0 °C 12.9 °C 19.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 18.1 °C 22.4 °C 29.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,155 mm 2,803 mm 4,916 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 67 mm 305 mm 814 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 317 research-grade observations of Chamaedorea pinnatifrons 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 44 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.

  • Borassus pinnatifrons Jacq.
  • Chamaedorea aguilariana Standl. & Steyerm.
  • Chamaedorea bartlingiana H.Wendl.
  • Chamaedorea bifurcata Oerst.
  • Chamaedorea boliviensis Dammer
  • Chamaedorea bracteata H.Wendl.
  • Chamaedorea brevifrons H.Wendl.
  • Chamaedorea concinna Burret
  • Chamaedorea concolor Mart.
  • Chamaedorea conocarpa Mart.
  • Chamaedorea depauperata Dammer
  • Chamaedorea dryanderae Burret
  • Chamaedorea flavovirens H.Wendl.
  • Chamaedorea geonomoides (Spruce) Drude
  • Chamaedorea gracilis Willd.
  • Chamaedorea heilbornii Burret
  • Chamaedorea herrerae Burret
  • Chamaedorea holmgrenii Burret
  • Chamaedorea hoppii Burret
  • Chamaedorea kalbreyeriana H.Wendl. ex Burret
  • Chamaedorea lanceolata (Ruiz & Pav.) Kunth
  • Chamaedorea lanceolata var. littoralis Drude
  • Chamaedorea macroloba Burret
  • Chamaedorea membranacea Oerst.

and 20 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. 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.