The Coryphoideae is one of five subfamilies in the palm family, Arecaceae. It contains all of the genera with palmate leaves, excepting Mauritia, Mauritiella and Lepidocaryum, all of subfamily Calamoideae, tribe Lepidocaryeae, subtribe Mauritiinae. However, all Coryphoid palm leaves have induplicate (V-shaped) leaf folds (excepting Guihaia), while Calamoid palms have reduplicate (inverted V-shaped) leaf folds. Pinnate leaves do occur in Coryphoideae, in Phoenix, Arenga, Wallichia and bipinnate in Caryota. Coryphoids are well-represented in the fossil record from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) onwards, primarily due to the presence of the form genus Sabalites.

Classification

Subfamily Coryphoideae is divided into 8 tribes: The genus Sabinaria was discovered and described after the classification used here was published, but its morphology clearly places it in tribe Cryosophileae. The genus Saribus was split from Livistona, while Lanonia was split from Licuala, also after publication. Tribe Trachycarpeae was initially described as tribe 'Livistoneae', but the name Trachycarpeae has priority. Also Uhlia is an extinct genus described from permineralized remains recovered from the Ypresian Princeton Chert in British Columbia, Canada.