PlantFiles: Hooker's Sugar Palm, Hooker's Fishtail Palm
Arenga hookeriana

At Fairchild Gardens in Miami, FL, they have what appears to be, a large mature Arenga hookeriana specimen labeled as a Arenga caudata. It is planted near two other large palm clusters, also labeled Arenga caudata. The second two clusters look like A. caudata, and nothing like the hookeriana.

We have a few decent sized palms growing well in 3-gallon pots here in Orlando, FL. We protect them during the winter, in a hot house, to control the humidity.

These can grow in Southern California. I have seen one myself in Fallbrook california. It did not have a dense crown, but the leaves on it were pretty big.

Though possibly the same species as A caudata (some say seeds of this often end up growing into 'ordinary A caudata plants), this is an exceptionally beautiful palm, grown in tropical countries commonly as a specimen or pot palm. It has very wide, large fishtail like leaflets on slender stems. I saw these all over Singapore and Thailand and they were prized palms. So far no one has been able to grow them in So Cal despite what the comment above claims. This is one of the reasons the two palms are considered distinct as they have markedly different cold hardiness.