Acrocomia intumescens

Although often treated as a synonym of Acrocomia aculeata, this plant is so different that it might better be treated as the separate species it was originally described as, in 1891, by Martius. Native to forests in northeasternmost Brazil, especially around the town of Recife, it is a moderately large palm with a smooth, distinctly swollen trunk to about 8 m (26 ft.) tall which holds a rounded crown of large, plumose leaves. It actually resembles the Cuban Gastrococos crispa (now Acrocomia crispa) more than A. aculeata from elsewhere in Brazil and will grow under the same conditions as either of them.