PlantFiles: Palm
Chamaedorea sullivanorum

This is a simply beautiful understory palm named after a local Southern California palm grower, Pauleen Sullivan. It has bifid, unsplit leaves that are typically dark-blue-green and mottled. There is a rarer green form that may end up being something else. It is a rare palm and expensive. This palm is one of the harder palms to grow, being quite fastidious in its need for humidity and warmth, but not too much of the latter (tough to grow in some tropical climates). Here in So Cal it grows well along the coast in very protected, shady moist locations in rich well draining soil. But even in those gardens it is often brown tipped and unhealthy looking. Usually only 1-2 leaves at a time look unblemished (though I have to say photos of it in the wild show it doesn't always look great there, either). I have had no luck with this palm always having lived a bit too inland.