Named after Nikolay Rumyantsev (1754–1826), who was Russia's Foreign Minister and Imperial Chancellor and notable patron of the Russian voyages of exploration.

This palm was first scientifically described and validly published as Cocos romanzoffiana in 1822 in Paris in a folio of illustrations made by the artist Louis Choris, with a description by the French-German poet and botanist Adelbert von Chamisso.

[8] Both men had participated in the first Russian scientific expedition around the world under command of Otto von Kotzebue, and funded by Nikolay Rumyantsev, during which they collected this plant in the hinterland of Santa Catarina, Brazil in late 1815.

Meanwhile, in England, circa 1825, Loddiges nursery had imported seed of a palm from Brazil which they dubbed Cocos plumosa in their catalogue, a nomen nudum.

The horticulturist John Claudius Loudon in 1830 listed this plant among 3 species of the Cocos genus then grown in Britain, and mentioned its possible identification as Karl von Martius' C.

[9] One of Loddiges' seedlings found its way to the new palm stove built at Kew Gardens in the 1840s, where it had grown to a height of 50–60 ft, and where botanists determined it to be another of von Martius' species; C. coronata.

In 1859 this palm flowered and produced fruit for the first time, which made it clear that its previous identification was incorrect and thus the director of the garden, Joseph Dalton Hooker, 'reluctantly' published a valid description for Loddiges' name C. plumosa in 1860.

Under subgenus Arecastrum he listed the taxa C. romanzoffiana of Santa Catarina, C. plumosa known only from cultivation from seedlings from the plant in Kew, C. australis of Argentina to Paraguay, C. datil of eastern Argentina and Uruguay, C. acrocomioides of Mato Grosso do Sul, C. acaulis of Piauí, Goiás and recently collected from the mountains of Paraguay bordering Brazil, and C. geriba (syn.

[2] In Paraguay it occurs in the departments of Alto Paraná, Amambay, Caaguazú, Canindeyú, Central, Concepción, Cordillera, Guairá, Ñeembucú, Paraguarí and San Pedro.

[18] It is not regarded as an invasive or naturalised in New South Wales,[18][22] although numerous sightings of it have been recorded around Sydney and the coast, including in nature parks.

[27] The two toucans Ramphastos vitellinus[26][27] and R. dicolorus[26][27] pluck ripe fruits directly from the infructescence and regurgitate the seeds, the gamefowl chachalaca Ortalis guttata (or a closely related species, depending on one's taxonomic interpretation)[27] and the two related guan Penelope obscura[28] and P. superciliaris,[28] did so as well, but spread the seeds in their defecations and thus may be important dispersers.

ingrami is an important seed predator of this palm where the ranges of the two species overlap; breaking the nut open with its teeth at one of the three pores in the top of the nutshell.

[26][27][37][38] Other weevils found to be seed predators of this palm are Anchylorhynchus aegrotus and A. variabilis,[38] but these species are also flower visitors and likely important specialized pollinators.

[27][42][43] The coati climb into the palm to get at the fruit,[27] which in one urban study was found in 10% of all stool samples, although it constituted only 2.5% of the total faecal matter.

astyra, B. sophorae and Catoblepia amphirhoe in Santa Catarina in 1968, while Opsiphanes invirae, the nominate form or possibly subspecies remoliatus, was recorded feeding on this palm in both these regions.

[52] Its fruits are edible and sometimes eaten;[50][52] consisting of a hard nut surrounded with a thin layer of fibrous flesh that is orange and sticky when ripe.

Fallen fruits are fed to pigs, and palm trunks are often used in construction, frequently hollowed out to make water pipes or aqueducts for irrigation.