Recently Goa Government (India) has given a ruling that Coconut is not a tree. Hence I have been searching various documents either in support or against its verdict. As a botanist, we should be able to establish the fact.
Palm and tree both are woody perennials but palm is unbranched and evergreen having crown of fan-shaped leaves whereas tree has lateral branches and may be evergreen or deciduous.
The botanical standpoint the coconut tree is a monocotiledôena plant and does not fit the tree definition because it has not branched woody trunk at the top, however, the coconut trees can reach 30 meters in height then understand not be suitable name them like grass, so I think a good setting to call them tree-sized palm tree, and call some tree ferns.
Palms are not really trees in the sense of a plant that grows a woody trunk, but they are monoaxial trees. But they are not tree ferns – these are actual ferns!