Arecaceae-Landscape Plants For South Florida

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Arecaceae

Palm Family

Informal family characterization (with data from SMI): A huge family of warm climates, with almost 200 genera and 2000 species. In the New World there are 67 genera and over 500 species. Most are trees, many are clumping, some are shrubby, and a few are vines. The small flowers may be perfect, monoecious, or dioecious, usually (with exceptions) having 3 sepals, 3 petals, 6 or more stamens, and carpels 1 or 3. The fruits are mostly drupes. The Palm Family is the subject of a great deal of taxonomic research, and the nomenclature is ever-changing. Synonymy and taxonomic reinterpretations are rampant.

For an on-line key to palms see Noblick.

For a photo gallery see: http://www.plantapalm.com/vpe/photos/vpe_photos.htm

Key to Important Palms Cultivated in South Florida

(data from MEE, JON, FTG, PBCC)

1. Leaves bipinnate (twice compound)…2

1. Leaves pinnate, or costapalmate, or palmate…5

Fishtail Palms

2. Multitrunked…Fishtail Palm (Caryota mitis)

2. Single-trunked…3

3. Leaves upright, the leaflets rounded…Thai Mountain Giant Palm (Caryota gigas)

3. Leaves droopy, the leaflets with squared-off tips (shaped like a fish tail)…4

4. Trees enormous, 60’-100’ tall…Giant Mountain Fishtail Palm (Caryota maxima) (also consider C. rumphiana)

4. Trees to 40’ tall…Toddy Palm (Caryota urens)

(Note that Phoenix sylvestris is also called Toddy Palm.)

5. Leaves costapalmate (with the petiole extending into the leaf blade)…6

5. Leaves pinnate or palmate…14

Costapalmate Palms (Sabal, Washingtonia, Livistona)

6. Petioles toothed…7

6. Petioles smooth…Cabbage Palm (Sabal palmetto)

7. Leaves with filaments among the leaflets; petiole teeth orange…Washingtonia Palm (Washingtonia robusta)

7. Leaves without filaments among the leaflets; petiole teeth green or gray…8

8. Leaves green…9

8. Leaves with blue (and/or reddish) coloration…11

9. Leaves deeply dissected with the segments weeping…Ribbon Palm (Livistona decora)

9. Leaves not dissected more than 1/3-2/3, the segments rigid or drooping at the tips…10

10. Leaves with strongly drooping tips; leaf scars not reddish; fruits blue…Chinese Fan Palm (Livistona chinensis)

10. Leaves mostly rigid, with only a slight tendency for the tips to droop; leaf scars reddish; fruits dark brown to blackish…Roundleaf Fan Palm (Livistona rotundifolia) (trunk usually with persistent fibers)

11. Hastula symmetrical; young leaf segments serrate; petiole bases with thick woolly scales…12

11. Hastula asymmetrical; young leaf segments entire-margined; petiole bases free of (or with few) woolly scales…Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis)

12. Hastula with a prominent protruding point; leaves and petioles with reddish coloration; leaf scars not wavy…Red Latan Palm (Latania lontarioides)

12. Hastula flat; leaves and petioles without (or with little) reddish coloration; leaf scar wavy…Blue Latan Palm (Latania loddigesii) (the seed with wavy pattern at one end)

13. Leaves pinnate…22

13. Leaves palmate (and not costapalmate)…14

Palmate-Leaved Palms (Licuala, Acoelorraphe, Rhapis, Serenoa, Thrinax, Coccothrinax)

14. Petioles toothed or rough-serrate…15

14. Petioles smooth…19

15. Leaves usually silvery…Mediterranean Fan Palm (Chamaerops humilis; Serenoa repens may have silvery leaves but its petioles are merely rough serrate as opposed to having protruding teeth)

15. Leaves not silvery (or silvery only on the bottoms)…16

16. Palms usually < 10’ tall, the trunk very short or more or less horizontial (rarely vertical), the petiole serrate or merely rough…Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)

16. Palms shorter than or taller than 10’, the trunk vertical, the petiole with protruding teeth…17

17. Leaf blades with toothed margins but not divided into segments…Licuala Palm (Licuala grandis)

17. Leaves divided into segments…18

18. Leaves divided essentially to the center into wedge-shaped segments…Spiny Licuala (Licuala spinosa; also see Licuala discussion for additional unusual but similar species)

18. Leaves divided 2/3 or less; the segments narrow, tapered, and pointed at the tips; fruits black; sun-loving palms reaching 20’ tall…Paurotis Palm (Acoelorraphe wrightii)

19. Leaf blades divided essentially to the center; clumping, small, shade-loving species with network of black fibers around the stem…Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa)

19. Leaf blades divided 2/3 or less; single-trunked, sun-loving palms with or without black fibers on the stem…20

20. Petiole bases unsplit; fruit purplish or blackish…21

20. Petiole bases split; fruit white…Florida Thatch Palm [Thrinax radiata; note also Key Thatch Palm, Leucothrinax morrisii (Thrinax morrisii), with the leaf surfaces silver-white beneath and the hastula rounded (vs. pointed)]

21. Leaves divided ¾; segments 1” wide…Silver Palm (Coccothrinax argentata)

21. Leaves divided about ½; segments 2” wide…Puerto Rican Thatch Palm (Coccothrinax alta)

Pinnate-Leaved Palms

22. Leaves induplicate (folds opening upward); petioles with large spines derived from reduced leaf bases…23

22. Leaves reduplicate; petioles unarmed or with teeth, but these not small leaflets modified into spines…27

Date Palms (Phoenix)

23. Stems prostrate or inclined; numerous…Senegal Date Palm (Phoenix reclinata)

23. Stems upright, single (sometimes with suckering, this usually pruned off)…24

24. Dwarf palms 6’-12’ tall…Pygmy Date Palm (Phoenix roebelinii)

24. Trees much larger…25

25. Trunks exceptionally thick (to 3’); leaves green (or partly yellow from magnesium deficiencies), many leaves hanging down; fruits round...Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis)

25. Trunks thinner; leaves blue-green, many leaves hanging down or the leaves predominantly upright; fruits elongate…26

26. Trees suckering; leaves predominantly oriented upward (especially after pruning); suckering…Date Palm (Phoenix dactylifera)

26. Trees not suckering; many leaves hanging down…Toddy Palm (Phoenix sylvestris)

(Note that Caryota urens is also called Toddy Palm.)

27. Crownshaft absent…28

27. Crownshaft present…41

Pinnate-Leaved (or Simple-Leaved) Palms (except Date Palms) with no Crownshafts (Cocos, Allagopteris, Syagrus, Aiphanes, Ravenea, Rhapidophyllum, Chamaedorea)

(NOTE: Readily recognized by possession of coconuts, Cocos nucifera is not included in the key.)

28. Seashore palms with the trunks underground; leaves feathery with leaflets all around; inflorescences unbranched and spikelike…Seashore Palm (Allagoptera arenaria)

28. Palms otherwise…29

29. Trunk with long spines…30

29. Trunk unarmed (or absent)…31

30. Trunk very short (<5’); leaf segments linear…Needle Palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix)

[Note: Spines may be absent, but this species recognized as native to Highland Co., FL and northward, a small understory clumping species with deeply dissected leaves and narrow petioles.]

30. Trunk taller; leaf segments wedge-shaped…Ruffle Palm (Aiphanes aculeata)

31. Leaves blue-green…Pindo Palm (Butia capitata)

31. Leaves green…32

32. Palms strongly triangular, the leaves in 3 distinct rows, with long marginal reins…Triangle Palms (Dypsis decaryi)

Other plants in the manual include:

Adonidia merrillii

Archontophoenix alexandrae

Archontophoenix cunninghamiana

Areca vestiaria

Arenga pinnata

Carpentaria acuminata

Chamaedorea cataractarum