DESMONCUS Mart.
Revised AP September 2013
Palmas espinosas; tallos solitary or cespitosos, trepadores (free standing in one species, not from Nicaragua), pequeños a medianos; plantas monoicas. Hojas pinnadas; pinnas arregladas regular o irregularmente, almost linear to broadly ovate, las distales generalmente modificadas en acantofilos reflejos hooks; vaina cerrada extendiéndose por encima del pecíolo en una ócrea prominente y persistente. Inflorescencias interfoliares, 1 vez ramificadas in Nicaragua or spicate, pedúnculo con 1 profilo y 1 bráctea peduncular; flores en tríades on the proximal parts of the rachillae, distal parto of rachis usually with only flores estaminadas and deciduous; flores estaminadas con cáliz corto y 3-lobado, pétalos free and longer than the calyx lobes, estambres 5—12 but usually 6; flores pistiladas con cáliz shor, lobed, cupuliformes y corolla longer, tubular, lobed, estaminodios pequeños. Frutos pequeños a medianos, anaranjados, amarillo-anaranjados o rojos, mesocarpo variosuly fibrous or not, farináceo, endocarpo óseo con 3 poros laterales; semilla 1, endosperma homogéneo, eofilo poorly known.
Género neotropical con 24 especies. The concepts of both species treated here were included in the concept of Desmoncus orthacanthos Mart. in the published Flora de Nicaragua; D. orthacanthos following Henderson (2011) is considered endemic to the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil. The following descriptions modified from Henderson (2011).
A. Henderson. A revision of Desmoncus (Arecaceae). Phytotaxa 35: 1—88. 2011.