PlantFiles: Foxtail Palm
Wodyetia bifurcata

I love the look of these palms. They are all over our area in landscapes.
I have mine in a container as we rent and want to take it with us when we leave.
I am noticing brown tips and alot of spotting. I'm thinking it is from the cold this winter. I've heard adonidias are suseptable to this also.
Everything I've read says fast growing. I would say mine is slow. Maybe because it's in a container.

The worst choice for a cool summer area.Even in our mildest year ever, it grew just one and a half fronds. Strange that it has such good cold tolerance for freezing weather or short winters spells.
It might be possible in those sheltered areas where a variation of 'The greenhouse effect' (patio enclosures or hot walls)bring up our zone15-17 Sunset,heat..
A very attractive palm,so tempting....
Foxtails resemble a cross of Caryota(fishtail palms) and Queen palms. Save your money and time, and use either of those hardy palms in the bay area.

My husband and I planted a single Foxtail Palm and then another set of 3 that were growing together in our front yard. We live about 20 minutes south of Houston and our climate stays hot and very humid all summer. However, ours are doing VERY well!

The single palm has put on a foot and a half of new growth in the last 3 months and these are simply beautiful, full-looking palms when planted in groups. We're using ours to make some not-so-pretty neighboring apartments less visible, and they really add a lot to our home!

I also have a triplet Pygmy Date palm set, an Oleander, 2 sagos (one very tall and the other trunk is about 3 inches tall) and 4 very large and rapidly flowering hibiscus in my front yard, making our yard all together very tropical looking. These palms are the easiest thing in the world to grow, not needing any tender loving care in our area to look absolutely lush and beautiful.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced, fast-growing palm that is beautiful, I would highly recommend the Foxtail Palm!

Ours made it through one of the coldest winters on record in Houston. First an ice storm and them 3 days below freezing. It was even 25 degrees for hours with hard winds. We wrapped the trunk with insulation and had Christmas lights under it. The leaves got damaged badly but it has already grown two new fronds and a third one the way. We also had several days where it got below freezing for short periods of time which seem to cause no damage. Weather like this is very unusual in Houston so I expect it will do fine in the future. There are several in the community.

This palm is a tree everyone should want in there landscape. If you live in a warm climate, this palm is really easy to grow, and when it is established in its environment, it is surprisingly fast growing; 2 to 3 feet a year! The foxtail palm is also very attractive. The blooms are very showy and the fruit is an colorful orange color that captures alot of attention.

I've been experimenting with palm trees near Sacramento, Ca. I love topical plants, but a real novice to gardening. I planted the foxtail in May and it looked ok all summer long, but this winter has been very cold. Way to cold for this tree. All the branches have turned brown and I'm afraid that it didn't make it. I like to see what happens this spring but I doubt it made it and probably pull it out. That's the way it goes.--- March 14th, I pulled up my foxtail (froze to death) and I liked it so much I bought another one and replanted it. I hope it makes it...

Hollywood,FL
I've planted several foxtail palm 2 years ago.After hurricane wilma one of the palms seems to be dying,new frons are growing with brown edges and the trunk is not expanding.All of the other palms are thriving.Could this be some sort of desease and can it be saved

I have four Wodyetias ranging from 1' to 8' in the ground here in Los Altos, CA (9b SF Bay Area) and so far they're all growing moderately. The growth rate is quite fast during the summer and early fall months and I'm looking forward to them being larger trees. My only complaint is some occasional fungal spotting on horizontal leaves that occurs during our winter rainy seasons.

There is a beatuful specimen of this palm in the San Francisco Bay area, down in Santa Clara. It is surprisingly hardy, because it comes from a truly tropical place.

I planted some small foxtail seedlings by my pool here in Phoenix. I would say moderate growers so far, but perhaps when they get older they will grow faster.

I have seen these in full sun at the Phoenix zoo and a one other place around town. Overall, not commonly grown. The ones at the zoo look beaten up pretty bad. I baby all my plants though. Give them lots of water in Phoenix summer and fertilize in small doses monthly during warm weather.

My foxtails are doing fine so far but for the long term we will have to see.

I have been able to keep this palm alive in Thousand Oaks... but I guess I can't really say I've had success with it... pretty marginal there.. but in most of So Cal, it does well, especially near the coast. Never gets quite as frilly and plumose as in more humid climates like S Florida or the tropics. Is a VERY fast growing palm in the tropics (not here in Southern California, though), and in Thailand, they can go from seed to a plant producing seed in less than 6 years. Just 10 years ago it was considered a rare plant, and was endangered in the wild (N Australia), and exporting the seed was nearly impossible. But now it is one of the most commonly cultivated palms in the world.

This species is one of the few truly heat hardy crownshafted palms... most palms with a crownshaft cannot tolerate dry, hot climates... but this one, along with Royals, Pseudophoenix and Hyophorbes seem to like the heat. So if you live in the desert, this might be a good species for you.

Recently it has been found to be quite easy to hybridize this palm with several other species (Vetchia and Carpentaria) for some spectacular crosses. The former cross actually performs better in cooler climates than do either of the parent species.

Foxtail palm is one of many major landscape palms in southwest Florida. They are often planted as two- and three-stem specimens. And their distinctive fronds make them living, breathing "conversation pieces"--in an interest class with christmas palms, bottle palms, and sealing wax palms.