PlantFiles: European Fan Palm, Mediterranean Fan Palm
Chamaerops humilis

the european fan palm is very coomonly used as a shrub palm and for median plantings along the parkways not very common to see one that is taller than 8 feet because they are all quite young. they seem to not mind the swampiness of the deep south, or the wet winters that we have, or the almost flooding rains left from tropical storms and hurricanes. it seems to me that all of the different palms have a different growth rate, even if they are all in the same species. it is not unusual to see them varying in a matter of feet when they are planted in masses all at the same size and at the same time.

This is one of the most commonly seen landscape palms in southern California, and is popular all over California, Texas and some of the eastern states as well. It is one of the most cold hardy palms and the only palm originating from Europe (the Mediterranean countries). As a landscape palm it is nearly unparalleled- it grows multiple stalks (suckering palm, though solitary cultivars are known) but usually they grow at different rates so there is usually 1-2 central taller trunks and shorter ones surrounding it. It continues to sucker profusely so most growers will begin to cut them away once the palm is established or else it becomes an impossible to manage mass of incredibly spiny, dangerous leaves and stems. Once the lower leaves are trimmed off, the exposed trunk is covered in a thick matting of fiber that itself is ornamental. Careful when trimming this palm! The petioles are visciously armed. It is not picky about soil growing in sandy soil to clay soil (prefers the latter), is drought and wind tolerant, and grows in sun or shade (though shaded palms tend to become sort of lanky and stretched and a bit less healthy in the long run). It grows well in the desert as well as right on the coast.

Though this is a dioicus palm (separate male and female plants) some plants seem to develop different sexed flowers on different stems on the same palm and sort of become self fertile. But in southern California there are plenty of successful pollinators and plants are common, so fertile seed is not that unusual.

It is a slow growing palm so large specimens are very expensive (sometimes thousands of dollars)... but fortunately it is an easy species to move and rarely even sets back. It is so drought tolerant that cutting leaves off when moving the palm is usually unnecessary.

There are several interesting and beautiful cultivars of this species, but they are covered under separate listings.

Have 3 of them in Victoria, B.C Canada...they winter very well here..but tend to be slow growing...all three are growing on the south side of the house in a sheltered location.

slow growing, but very "ornamentical" ... down to -12C without greater problems in winter, but MUST be DRY in this time or the roots can die!