See text Bactris is a genus of spiny palms which are native to Mexico, South and Central America and the Caribbean.

They have simple or pinnately compound leaves and yellow, orange, red or purple-black fruit.

The ancestors of the genus are believed to have entered South America during the late Cretaceous.

[2]: 4–5  Most species grow in multi-stemmed clumps with stems about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) tall and 3 centimetres (1.2 in) in diameter, but they span a range of sizes from tall trees to shrubs with subterranean stems and are sometimes single-stemmed.

Ripe fruit can be yellow, orange, red or purple-black (other colours are present in a few species) and range from 0.5–4.5 centimetres (0.2–1.8 in) long.

Later workers split Bactris into several genera (Guilielma, Augustinea, Pyrenoglyphis, Amylocarpus and Yuyba) and described several hundred species.

Three species (B. cubensis, B. jamaicana and B. plumeriana) are restricted to the Caribbean and form a closely related clade.

Bactris acanthophora and B. campestris are used medicinally, while B. barronis, B. pilosa and B. setulosa are used in construction.