Elaeis guineensisJacq.

African Oil PalmAfrican oil palm

WFO wfo-0000947985 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Elaeis guineensis, photographed by 葉子
fig. a 葉子, CC0 1.0 / 2021-05-22 / obs. 139679291
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by portioid
fig. b portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59474746
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by Carrie Seltzer
fig. c Carrie Seltzer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 2829140
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by Simon Tonge
fig. d Simon Tonge, CC0 1.0 / obs. 60374328
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. e Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 117596664
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by Lucas Kaminski
fig. f Lucas Kaminski, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175763355
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. g Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 173201355
Elaeis guineensis, photographed by Jean-Paul Boerekamps
fig. h Jean-Paul Boerekamps, CC0 1.0 / obs. 105054012

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 25 botanical countries

Regions where Elaeis guineensis is native: Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda AngolaBeninCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaLiberiaMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUganda
Native distribution of Elaeis guineensis, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA

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 636 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 15.7 °C 22.1 °C 24.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.9 °C 30.0 °C 36.7 °C
Annual rainfall 922 mm 2,214 mm 3,455 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 1 mm 142 mm 524 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 636 research-grade observations of Elaeis guineensis 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 41 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.

  • Elaeis cirrhosa Thouin
  • Elaeis dybowskii Hua
  • Elaeis guineensis f. androgyna A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. caryolitica Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. dioica A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. dura Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. fatua Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. ramosa A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. semidura Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis f. tenera Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis subsp. nigrescens A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis subsp. virescens A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. albescens Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. angulosa Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. ceredia A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. compressa Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. gracilinux A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. idolatrica A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. intermedia A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. leucocarpa Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. macrocarpa A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. macrocarya Becc.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. macrophylla A.Chev.
  • Elaeis guineensis var. macrosperma Welw.

and 17 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. 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.