Historia naturalis palmarum

Historia naturalis palmarum: opus tripartitum ("Natural History of Palms, a work in three volumes") is a highly illustrated, three-volume botanical book of palms (Arecaceae) by German botanist Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius. The work is in Latin and was published in imperial folio format in Leipzig (Lipsiae) by T.O. Weigel, volume one in 1823 and the final volume in 1850. It includes more than 550 pages of text and 240 chromolithographs, including views of habitats and botanical dissections.

Historia naturalis palmarum was based on Martius' travels in Brazil and Peru with zoologist Johann Baptist von Spix from 9 December 1817 to 1820. Their expedition was sponsored by the King of Bavaria, Maximilian I, with instructions to investigate natural history and tribal Indians. The pair travelled over 2,250 km (1,400 mi) throughout the Amazon Basin, the most species-rich palm region in the world, collecting and sketching specimens. They began in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo before making their way north and inland. They became the first non-Portuguese Europeans to obtain permission to visit the Brazilian Amazon.

On their return to Bavaria, the King awarded both men knighthoods and lifetime pensions.

In the first volume, Martius outlined the modern classification of palms and prepared the first maps of palm biogeography. The second volume described the palms of Brazil, and in the third, known as Expositio Systematica, he systematically described all known genera of the palm family, based on his own work and that of others.

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