Socratea exorrhiza(Mart.) H.Wendl.

CashaponaWalking Palm

WFO wfo-0000311608 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Zoltán Stekkelpak
fig. a Zoltán Stekkelpak, CC0 1.0 / 2021-11-21 / obs. 170341037
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Guillaume Delaitre
fig. b Guillaume Delaitre, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168678421
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Guillaume Delaitre
fig. c Guillaume Delaitre, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153799445
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Martha Lucia Ortiz-Moreno
fig. d Martha Lucia Ortiz-Moreno, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 114125130
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. e Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 73966378
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. f Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 73979049
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. g Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 1938069
Socratea exorrhiza, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31083090

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 13 botanical countries

Regions where Socratea exorrhiza is native: Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela BoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorFrench GuianaGuyanaNicaraguaPanamáPeruSurinameVenezuela
Native distribution of Socratea exorrhiza, 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
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guyana GUY
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Venezuela VEN

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 1,352 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 16.4 °C 21.2 °C 23.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.9 °C 29.4 °C 32.4 °C
Annual rainfall 1,826 mm 3,355 mm 5,219 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 102 mm 315 mm 792 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 1,352 research-grade observations of Socratea exorrhiza 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 14 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.

  • Iriartea durissima Oerst.
  • Iriartea exorrhiza Mart.
  • Iriartea exorrhiza var. elegans (H.Karst.) Drude
  • Iriartea exorrhiza var. orbignyana (Blume ex Mart.) Drude
  • Iriartea orbignyana Blume ex Mart.
  • Iriartea philonotia Barb.Rodr.
  • Socratea albolineata Steyerm.
  • Socratea durissima (Oerst.) H.Wendl.
  • Socratea elegans H.Karst.
  • Socratea gracilis Burret
  • Socratea hoppii Burret
  • Socratea macrochlamys Burret
  • Socratea orbignyana (Blume ex Mart.) H.Karst.
  • Socratea philonotia (Barb.Rodr.) Benth. & Hook.f.

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.