Coccothrinax alta is a palm

Arecaceae

Arecaceae or Palmae , are a family of flowering plants, the only family in the monocot order Arecales. There are roughly 202 currently known genera with around 2600 species, most of which are restricted to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate climates...

 which is native to Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 and the Virgin Islands

Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...

. Like other members of the genus, C. alta is a fan palm

Fan palm

Fan palm as a descriptive term can refer to any of several different kinds of palms in various genera with leaves that are palmately compound...

. Trees are 2–6 m tall, with some individuals getting up to 11 m. Flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are light yellow, and fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 are purple-black when ripe. It is found on lower elevations, but to 350 m above sea level.

It is found on limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 substrates in northern Puerto Rico, and on volcanic substrates on the islands off eastern Puerto Rico. It has been recorded from Puerto Rico proper, Vieques and Culebra

Culebra

Culebra may refer to:* Culebra, Puerto Rico, an island* Isla Culebra, the Spanish name of Sedge Island, part of the Falkland archipelago* Culebra Peak, the southernmost fourteener in Colorado, United States...

; Saint Croix

Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Croix is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Formerly the Danish West Indies, they were sold to the United States by Denmark in the Treaty of the Danish West Indies of...

, St. Thomas

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea and with the islands of Saint John, Saint Croix, and Water Island a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of...

 and St. John

Saint John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Saint John is an island in the Caribbean Sea and a constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands , an unincorporated territory of the United States. St...

 in the U.S. Virgin Islands; and Guana Island

Guana Island

Guana Island is an island of the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean. One of the few remaining privately-owned islands in its part of the world, Guana has seven white powder-sand beaches and of tropical forest, mountains, hills, and valleys...

, Tortola

Tortola

Tortola is the largest and most populated of the British Virgin Islands, a group of islands that form part of the archipelago of the Virgin Islands. Local tradition recounts that Christopher Columbus named it Tortola, meaning "land of the Turtle Dove". Columbus named the island Santa Ana...

 and Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda

Virgin Gorda is the third-largest and second most populous of the British Virgin Islands . Located at approximately 18 degrees, 48 minutes North, and 64 degrees, 30 minutes West, it covers an area of about...

 in the British Virgin Islands

British Virgin Islands

The Virgin Islands, often called the British Virgin Islands , is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union, located in the Caribbean to the east of Puerto Rico. The islands make up part of the Virgin Islands archipelago, the remaining islands constituting the U.S...

.

George Proctor (in Acevedo-Rodríguez & Strong, 2005) considers this to be a valid species on the basis of its shorter, more slender trunk, fewer stamen

Stamen

The stamen is the pollen producing reproductive organ of a flower...

s and much smaller fruit. Rafaël Govaerts follows Read (1979) and considers it a synonym of Coccothrinax barbadensis

Coccothrinax barbadensis

Coccothrinax barbadensis is a palm found in the Lesser Antilles Coccothrinax barbadensis (latanier, latanier balai) is a palm found in the Lesser Antilles Coccothrinax barbadensis (latanier, latanier balai) is a palm found in the Lesser Antilles (and Trinidad and Tobago. Like other members of the...

.