PlantFiles: Millionaire's Salad
Deckenia nobilis

This is a really fantastic palm, and somewhat hard to find. Thankfully, specialty growers in Miami are now offering this species. Either this palm is a bit more hardy than predicted, or something about the climate in south FL is appealing to it. I really didn't expect this palm to survive our brief and periodic cold spells, but so far it has emerged from occasional episodes near freezing without any damage at all. Only time will tell how well this interesting palm will fare in our climate. I would definitely say this is well worth some experimentation in Florida.

This is one of the nicest looking tropical palms, from the Seychelles, where it can grow up to 100' tall. It has a classic palm shape wtih a nice ringed trunk, crownshaft, flat, slightly drooping leaves... but with highly ornamental and weird looking flower bracts that stick straight out right below the crownshafts like little fat torpedoes. Young palms have trunks covered with ornamental yellow dense spines. These spines eventually disappear as the palm ages. This is a nearly hopeless tropical palm unable to even begin to survive in California.... though a notable exception is photographed above right at the California/Mexico border in a perfect microclimate garden.