PlantFiles: Pacaya Palm
Chamaedorea tepejilote

The Pacaya Palm grows in clumps at the edge of my woods adjacent to my cultivated garden in the North of Guatemala. It receives very little direct Sun. It relies on rainfall for water but may receive some water from the garden sprinklers if the pressure is high. The groups of Palms although only a few yards from each other are in different stages of flower production. Their activity is between late November and February. The cooler and drier season.
Next month the market will be full of the fully developed but unopened flower shoots, popular as a vegetable.

Fast growing palm, usually solitary, but some suckering forms available in cultivation. This palm grows up to 22' and has sparse crown of leaves that extend perpendicular to the thin, bamboo-like green trunk. Leaflets are lancelote and papery thin, ridged and usually pendant. This palm, at least in so Cal, hates sunlight, and will yellow badly in sun... which it usually grows into eventually since it gets so tall. Great palm while young and green, though. Can be recognized by the extremely prominent yellow stripe along the lower side of the petiole (many Chamaedoreas have that stripe, but it is faint in most of those other species). From central America south to Colombia. This palm loves to be watered a lot, but will survive short periods of drought (at least in my old yard) OK.