INTRODUCTION

      Palms are one of the well known and extensievly cultivated plant families,next only to grasses in importance in the socio-economy of human race.Belonging to the family Arecaceae, the palms are monocots and have 202 described genera with about 2779 species (Uhl and Dransfield,1987). Most of our forest palms are experiencing severe threat to their existence,mainly due to anthropogenic factors.Many economically important palms are also on the decline because of their unrestricted utilization. Conservation and utilization of palms, therefore, assumes significant importance. Evaluation of relationships among palms through molecular and morphological tools could provide some intersting insights to their phylogeny and its classification. A detailed study of the palm would provide a base for their future utilization in plant breeding programmes based particularly on their tolerance to various stresses.