into a ring); fruit with more but shorter spines; and the nut with the three pores positioned close to the apex (as opposed to up to a third of the distance from it). Acrocomia species are other palms which are similar enough to be confused with this species, and the clustering Manicaria saccifera is superficially similar. Cryosophila species are also large palms and also have big trunk spines, but have fan-shaped leaves and forked spines. Several Bactris species have sharp trunk spines, but are often smaller trees. Astrocaryum species in general can be told apart from these and other palm genera by the whitish or silvery undersides of the leaves. Common names The Spanish name coyolillo is a diminutive of coyól. The name is attested from Costa Rica in 1908, and said to also be used for different species of palm. The word coyól itself is derived from the Nahuatl language word coyolli, and originally means a type of round bell. Taxonomy Astrocaryum alatum was first described in 1939 by Harold F. Loomis, an agronomist working at the U.S. Plant Introduction Garden, Coconut Grove, Florida (and also an important millipede expert). The 1939 article itself remarks that it is strange such a large, common and obvious plant in a well-known region had only attracted the attention of a taxonomist so late in history. This is because it was, in fact, known before. The pioneer ethnobiologist Henri François Pittier discussed the species using the name A. polystachyum. This name had apparently first appeared in a 1885 publication by William Hemsley in the series Biologia Centrali-Americana, but attributed to the German palm expert Hermann Wendland, and said to grow in Costa Rica, citing a type kept in Kew which was collected along the Sarapiquí River. There appears to be some confusion here: Wendland had never described a A. polystachyum, but instead had named a A. confertum from Costa Rica (absent in Hemsley's work). A. polystachyum is now considered a synonym of A. confertum, but Pittier is clearly referring to A. alatum in his work, based on his description and the range he gives. As such an author of 1939 article had stayed at the town of El Cairo, Costa Rica, in 1937 and 1938, collecting specimens and seeds of the palm and calling it A. polystachyum. The seeds had been exported to the USDA in the US, and from there been distributed