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.