Elaeis guineensis is a species of palm commonly called African oil palm or macaw-fat.

In the Dominican Republic between Santo Domingo and the Samaná Peninsula, you can see lots of dead palm trees along the highway. They are non-native African palm trees. The palm fruit takes five to six months to mature from pollination to maturity. It is reddish, about the size of a large plum, and grows in large bunches. These palm trees have a productive life of about 30 years, after which they are dried and killed off. New palm trees already have been planted in rows to replace the old ones.

The establishment of vast monoculture oil plam plantations has a number of environmental impacts. The two most serious impacts are large-scale forest conversion and loss of critical habitat for endangered species.