PlantFiles: Miniature Coconut Palm
Lytocaryum weddellianum

I was reading the last post concerning snails. We use Dried Molasses and have no snails or ants in our yard. It is amazing.

I Wounder if I can Overwinter this Palm in my Zone. I have get a 30" palm.

A very graceful plant. Is a lot tougher than it looks. They grow well in temperate climates as well as subtropical areas. They have a very thin trunk, older palms look very fragile and precarious. They always remind me of Phoenix roebelenii. The photographs from Flaxss appear to be Hyophorbe verschaffeltii seedlings.

Great little palm- has a very thin trunk/stem: about 1/2" -1" in diameter, and arching, very fine wispy leaves and fine leaflets. Closely related to the Queen palm and other Syagrus species... used to be in the same genus many years ago (Microcoelum) before queens got put in the genus Arecacastrum, and then into Syagrus (hard to keep up in the world of taxonomy). Looks a bit like a very small queen palm- no crown shaft and pretty hardy (not as hardy as a queen, and doesn't like sun). Seeds only if fertilized (is moneicious, but you need to take the pollen from one part of the flower and add it to the female parts yourself) and seed stalks are long and heavy looking relative to the size of the palm.

I have had good luck with this species in so Cal- ordering them from Hawaii bareroot. They transport quite well. Grow slowly and steadily in Thousand Oaks, where it gets frost nearly every year, as long as protected from sun, high winds, and snails (really not a big snail magnet like some palms, but one snail can devastate this plant since there is so little actual plant). Excellent species for a small, shady garden- will take forever to outgrow its space.