Species
+

Roystonea regia (Kunth) O.F.Cook

Cuban Royal Palm, Cuban royal palm, Florida royal palm, Könangpualem

Climate known 50 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Roystonea regia, commonly known as the royal palm, Cuban royal palm, or Florida royal palm, is a species of palm native to Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida, and parts of Central America. A large and attractive palm, it has been planted throughout the tropics and subtropics as an ornamental tree. Although it is sometimes called R. elata, the conserved name R. regia is now the correct name for the species. The royal palm reaches heights from 15–24 m (50–80 ft) tall. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Roystonea regia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Roystonea

Roystonea is a genus of eleven species of monoecious palms, native to the Neotropics, in the Caribbean, the adjacent coasts of Florida in the United States, Mexico, Central America and northern South America. Commonly known as the royal palms, the genus was named after Roy Stone, a U.S. Army engineer. It contains some of the most recognizable and commonly cultivated palms of tropical and subtropical regions.

Text from Wikipedia, “Roystonea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(Kunth) O.F.Cook
Native to
Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast +7
Wild records
671 in range· 308 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1437mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 223 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1437 mm a year, wettest June at 223 mm, driest January at 46 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Euterpe jenmanii C.H.Wright; Euterpe ventricosa C.H.Wright; Oenocarpus regius (Kunth) Spreng.; Oreodoxa regia Kunth; Palma elata W.Bartram and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1085 mm of 1437 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.8 °C against a yearly mean of 24.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1437 mm a year, wettest June at 223 mm, driest January at 46 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1437 mm a year at the habitat, 1085 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 223 mm, driest January at 46 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1215 mm to 1864 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.0 °C, the absolute minimum 3.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.7 °C to 21.6 °C), warmest day 30.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 18 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1437 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 303 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 24–41RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 303 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 22–2726 / 23–2827 / 25–2928 / 26–3130 / 27–3230 / 28–3231 / 29–3231 / 29–3230 / 29–3128 / 27–3027 / 25–2826 / 23–28
Night °C18 / 15–2219 / 15–2219 / 17–2221 / 18–2323 / 21–2524 / 22–2525 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2623 / 21–2521 / 18–2419 / 16–23
Rain mm46 / 32–6755 / 36–7662 / 44–9671 / 47–100134 / 86–240223 / 152–278167 / 111–237194 / 130–254218 / 166–262149 / 106–23770 / 49–13248 / 32–72
DLI25 / 23–2930 / 27–3336 / 33–3941 / 39–4341 / 40–4340 / 37–4241 / 38–4439 / 36–4134 / 31–3730 / 28–3226 / 23–2924 / 21–27
RH %60 / 58–6460 / 58–6459 / 57–6359 / 57–6361 / 58–6564 / 62–6763 / 62–6663 / 62–6764 / 63–6963 / 61–6861 / 59–6761 / 58–65

Each figure is the median across the 303 grid cells holding the 590 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1281:1996 (25.925, -80.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 303 distinct grid cells holding the 590 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1281:1996 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 26.00_-80.000, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Honduras, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti· introduced: Assam, El Salvador, Panama, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker25.961, -81.355 · in the densest population, 371 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 671 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 308 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 58 km away. 315 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 81 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 671 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Roystonea regiaRoystonea regiaRoystonea regiaRoystonea regiaRoystonea regiaRoystonea regiaRoystonea regiaRoystonea regia

Photographs: (c) Yoannis Domínguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Jay Pruett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Ryan Watson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Roystonea regia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Nutraceutical treatment and prevention of benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer
Arrigo F.G. Cicero, Olta Allkanjari, Gian Maria Busetto, Tommaso Cai (2019) · Archivio Italiano di Urologia e Andrologia
American palm ethnomedicine: A meta-analysis
Joanna Sosnowska, Henrik Balslev (2009) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Peroxidase from leaves of royal palm tree Roystonea regia: purification and some properties
Ivan Yu. Sakharov, M.K. Vesgac B, Igor Yu. Galaev, Irina V. Sakharova (2001) · Plant Science
Mapping Urban Tree Species Using Very High Resolution Satellite Imagery: Comparing Pixel-Based and Object-Based Approaches
Shivani Agarwal, Lionel Sujay Vailshery, Madhumitha Jaganmohan, Harini Nagendra (2013) · ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information
Mechanical and electrical performance of Roystonea regia/glass fibre reinforced epoxy hybrid composites
Govardhan Goud, R. Narasimha Rao (2012) · Bulletin of Materials Science
Crystal structure and statistical coupling analysis of highly glycosylated peroxidase from royal palm tree (Roystonea regia)
Leandra Watanabe, Patrı́cia Ribeiro de Moura, Lucas Bleicher, Alessandro S. Nascimento (2009) · Journal of Structural Biology
The Effect of Alkali Treatment on Dielectric Properties of Roystonea regia /Epoxy Composites
Govardhan Goud, R. Narasimha Rao (2011) · International Journal of Polymer Analysis and Characterization

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Roystonea 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 96 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.