Thrinax excelsa, commonly known as broad thatch, is a species of 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 endemic to Jamaica

Jamaica

Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

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Description

Thrinax excelsa 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...

 with solitary stems that range from 3 to 11 m (9.8 to 36.1 ft) tall and 12.5 to 20 cm (4.9 to 7.9 in) in diameter. Plants have between 6 and 17 palmately compound leaves with 52 to 65 leaflets. The inflorescence

Inflorescence

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Strictly, it is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed and which is accordingly modified...

s are arched and are not longer than the leaves. The bisexual flowers are small. The fruit are small, single-seeded, globose and white when mature.

Distribution

The species is endemic to Jamaica, which it grows between 300 and 500 m (984.3 and 1,640.4 ft) above sea level in the John Crow Mountains

John Crow Mountains

The John Crow Mountains are a range of mountains in Jamaica. They extend parallel with the north east coast of the island, bounded to the west by the banks of the Rio Grande, and joining with the eastern end of the Blue Mountains in the southeast...

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