The three recent treatments ( Henderson and coauthors , Glassman , and Govaerts and Dransfield ) recognised a total of 73 species , but only 20 species are accepted by all of them . The remainder account for either nine species or more than 40 . For example , what Andrew Henderson considered a single species , Attalea attaleoides , other authors have considered a species complex consisting of four or five species . Glassman doubted the validity of A. attaleoides as a species , and described four new species from material that had previously been attributed to A. attaleoides — A. camopiensis , A. degranvillei , A. guianensis and A. maripensis . Govaerts and Dransfield accepted both Glassman 's four species and A. attaleoides . However , Jean @-@ Christophe Pintaud was of the opinion that A. guianensis , A. maripensis and A. attaleoides were all very similar , and thought it likely that they all represented the same species .