Phylogenetic study of Metroxylon Palms in Southeast Asia and Oceania based on 5S nrDNA spacer sequence data

The genus Metroxylon is distributed from Southeast Asia (Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, and Indonesia) to Micronesia, Melanesia (Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and Fiji), and Polynesia (Samoa). It is divided into two sections, Metroxylon (Eumetroxylon) and Coelococcus (Beccari 1918; Rauwerdink 1986), representing the western half and the eastern half of this distribution,respectively (McClatchey 1999). Metroxylon sagu Rottb. (called the true sago palm: hereafter “sago palm”) is the only species in the section Metroxylon, although the monophyly of this section remains uncertain.