PlantFiles: Brazilian Needle Palm, Saho Palm
Trithrinax brasiliensis

Actually inflorescence bracts of Trithrinax brasiliensis in contrast to Trithrinax acanthocoma are snow-white before dessication. Nice plant, indestructible by cold and fairly immune to abuse. It needs plenty of water in summer.

Trithrinax grows well for me in Augusta, Ga., but needs to be fertilized carefully. It can suffer from Boron deficiency, so watch for the central growth area starting to grow sideways and for leaves that become small and distorted.

I think the only thing that is stopping for wanting this palm are the needle like thorns. Then again, I have the american one .

One of the more common palms in cultivation in Southern California, but still rare enough to be interesting to collectors. This is one of the hardiest and easiest to grow palms here. It is a fan palm with stiff, moderately divided, very symmetrical and attractive leaves, up to 3' in diameter. The most interesting thing about this plant is the trunk retains persistent large, thick spines pointing in all directions. From a distance it looks a bit ordinary, remeniscent of Trachycarpus or other common fan palms. I have seen this palm grown in the public southern California landscape along with a bunch of Trachycarpus fortuneis, almost as though it was accidentally planted by someone thinking it was just a somewhat larger Windmill Palm. Whether or not these planting were errors, or planned, it is always a nice surprise to see one in a lawn or along a median in southern California looking like giant Windmill palms (the spiny trunks are the giveaway).