PlantFiles: Pasopaya Palm, Bolivian Mountain Coconut
Parajubaea torallyi

The Parajubaea torallyi is perfect for non-tropical areas like California.This palm can handle the heat and cold quite well. It prefers a warm with not too moist soil. This species grows much faster, and takes more heat than it's brother, cocoides. The torallyi can be placed in full sun even as a young seedling. It keeps it strap leaves for about 4-5 years. Grasshoppers have been know to devour strap leaves so an insecticide may be used.

This is probably one of the very best palms suited for Southern California weather. It actually does pretty well in N California, too. Not a good palm for humid climates such as Florida and Hawaii. This palm is native to the Andes of western Bolivia and is pretty rare there.. but recently it has been collected heavily and is starting to show up in cultivation. It is a magnificent palm, approaching monolithic proportions- thick, hairy trunk and up to 60' tall, maybe taller. It is also a pretty fast grower, which we need here in So Cal, since 95% of palms that grow here are too slow to interest the average grower. The leaves are a slightly silvery-grey on top, and slightly copper underneath; have thin, long leaflets, and are extremely tolerant of high winds, amazingly enough (another thing we need a palm to tolerate in So Cal). Other than its rarity, it is the perfect palm for So Cal... and the rarity part will change someday soon I think. Now if it would just be a bit easier to germinate (takes up to 2 years for a seed to 'pop').