PlantFiles: Carnarvon Palm
Livistona nitida

L. nitida has done very well in Augusta, GA. Grows much faster with ample water, but does fine without it. Two winters in a row, it was covered in snow for several days. There was some leaf damage, but the palm grew like crazy the following Spring with no spear pull. Lows that it has endured are in the low20's. The palm is 12' tall after six years from a 5-gal. container.

Livistona nitida - I bought a couple of these as small plants, kept in a greenhouse over winter, took a god care of them, but it got exposed to 28F for some nights inside the mostly unheated greenhouse (only heated to raise temps to 28F) and the spear pulled on both plants. One died by June, another did not show any signs of growth even by now (8th of June 2012) and it seems all soft and mushy even if I treated it with antibacterial as I did to my other palms. All other kinds of palms recovered (or died) such as Washingtonias, Date palms etc. etc. but these ones are just too slow to recover or they are just not lively palms, not worth the trouble unless one can buy a large-enough plant (probably with at least 3-5 feet of clear trunk) to plant it directly into the soil.

Have a lot of experience with this exceptionally hardy Livistona species, only it's not that unique looking- in fact as a seedling up to a young adult, it can look a lot like a Washingtonia. Is one of the fastest growing Livistona species, and as adult, looks similar to Livistona australis- droopy, somewhat wide, deeply split fan leaves. As seedling, though, leaves fairly stiff and like a small Washingtonia, only with a slightly more costapalmate look (division down the middle where the leaflets divide from). Hard to kill this palm off- likes water, but if doesn't get any, doesn' care. Very cold hardy.