Family: Arecaceae
High Risk Traits:
- Climbing/smothering growth habit
- Spines present
- Forms dense thickets
- Bird-dispersed seeds
- Seeds survive gut passage
- Tolerates varied soils
- Shade-tolerant when young
- Tolerates cutting/pruning
- Naturalized outside native range (e.g., Samoa)
Low Risk Traits:
- Not a known weed
- Not parasitic/toxic/allelopathic
- No vegetative spread
- Not wind/water dispersed
- No persistent seed bank
- Dioecious (needs cross-pollination)
- Slow to mature (4–5 years)
- Limited to humid tropics
