Chamaedorea elegans, the neanthe bella palm or parlour palm, is a species of small palm tree native to the rainforests in Southern Mexico and Guatemala. The parlor palm is one of the most heavily sold houseplant palms in the world. It is one of several species with leaves that are harvested as xate. This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Compounds documented for Chamaedorea elegans across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile1 class
Spirostane steroids1
Documented compounds1 total
Compound
Class
Amount
Source
Cannigenin
present
LOTUS
05DNA & barcoding4 specimens
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Chamaedorea elegans has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens4
Marker genes4
GenBank sequences9
eDNA detections3
Countries2
The DNA barcodea real sequence read deposited for this species
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★matK2★rbcL5★rbcLa★ITS2
plant barcodefungal barcode
06Genome at a glanceCCDB · GoaT · NCBI
The complete instruction manualChamaedorea elegans carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Genome size≈380 024 517 bp assembly estimate
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
BACTERIUM Carsonella ruddii0.00016 Gb
FUNGUS0.04 Gb
INSECT0.25 Gb
THIS GENOME Chamaedorea elegans0.38 Gb
HUMAN3.2 Gb
WHEAT17 Gb
FERN Tmesipteris160.45 Gb
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
Assembly levelScaffold
07Deep time~4.9 Ma lineage
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
DNA clock origin4.9 Ma TimeTree
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type678 records
Wild obs. + sensor137
Museum / vouchered500
Cultivated / captive39
Other2
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO1 588 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy79% within 1 km
≤100 m 55≤1 km 29≤10 km 10>10 km 13
107 georeferenced · 30 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor137
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy93% within 1 km
≤100 m 284≤1 km 21≤10 km 18>10 km 5
328 georeferenced · 172 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence500
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy100% within 1 km
≤100 m 39
39 georeferenced
Open the mapnot free-living39
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions39 of 57 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Durango, MX
193
Mexico City, MX
89
Saint Louis, US
30
Guatemala City, GT
18
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, MX
14
Chapingo, MX
10
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, MX
8
Ann Arbor, US
8
Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabascolocation not on record
7
Montecillo, Texcoco, MX
6
Riverside, US
6
Miami, US
6
Bangkok, TH
5
Universidad de Caldas (UCaldas)location not on record
5
Mérida, MX
5
Ciudad de México, MX
5
Ciudad de México, MX
5
Austin, US
5
Bronx, US
4
Tapachula, MX
4
Millersville, US
4
Mexico City, MX
3
Auckland, NZ
3
Tampa, US
3
Denver, US
3
Mérida, MX
2
Québec, CA
2
Christchurch, NZ
2
Long Beach, US
2
NO DISPONIBLElocation not on record
2
MEXUlocation not on record
2
Austin, US
2
San Francisco de Campeche, MX
2
University of Stellenboschlocation not on record
1
Chongqing Museumlocation not on record
1
Xiamen, CN
1
Altos de Pipe, VE
1
Kew, GB
1
Canadian Department of Agriculturelocation not on record
1
MeiseBGlocation not on record
1
ASUlocation not on record
1
Ojo, NG
1
CASlocation not on record
1
Gujarat Biodiversity Gene Banklocation not on record
1
East Lansing, US
1
Claremont, US
1
Puebla, MX
1
LDlocation not on record
1
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldilocation not on record
1
Instituto de Ecología Aplicada, Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipaslocation not on record
1
Universidad Autónoma de Nayaritlocation not on record
1
University of Guelph, OAC Herbariumlocation not on record
1
Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Veracruzana, Región Xalapalocation not on record
1
Institut und Museum fuer Geologie und Palaeontologielocation not on record
1
South Kensington, GB
1
Jaén, ES
1
Chicago, US
1
57 institutions · 489 of 500 vouchered records shown · 11 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA3 detections
Where the DNA of Chamaedorea elegans was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found3
Studies independent surveys1
Countries2
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 3 detections have coordinates
Open the map2 countries0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median12.8 °C 0–25.5
Seasonal swing summer↔winter20.1 °C
Max temp (day)16.3 °C 3.50–29.0
Min temp (night)9.20 °C -3.00–21.3
Precipitation97.1 mm/mo 73.9–120
Air humidity61.9 % 60.5–63.3
Moisture balance12.7 mm/mo -16.1–41.4
Vapour deficit878 Pa 319–1,436
Wind speed3.00 m/s 2.60–3.50
Cloud cover34.0 % 12.6–55.4
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 2 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation11 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility678 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI3 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics4 specimens↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinesequences↗
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
GRIN TaxonomyUSDA-ARSdistribution & uses↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
CCDBChromosome Counts DB · Tel Aviv U.genome & karyotype↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
PloiDBPloidy Databasegenome & karyotype
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗