Hyphaene  

Dioecious palm with repeatedly forked slender trunk. Leaves palmate, usually deeply lobed. Inflorescence with an empty basal spathe (prophyl) at the base of the main axis and 1-2 tubular bracts above it; axis branched ultimately into flower-bearing apical rhạchillae, with spirally arranged bracts joined at their bases and forming floral pits; flowers borne in the floral pits, the male 3 per pit, and the female 1 per pit. Perianth of 6 lobes in 2 whorls, in male flowers the outer fused and tubular at base and the inner with longer thinner basal tube and the 3 lobes imbricate; stamens 6; pistillode very small. In female flowers the perianth lobes similar, free; staminodes forming a 6-toothed ring; ovary 3-chambered. Fruit usually developing from a single carpel; a drupe.
It includes c. 10 species of which one is found in Saudi Arabia.