Sugar Palm

Arenga pinnata (Wurmb) Merr.

ah-RENG-gah PIN-ay-ta

Arecaceae

Explanation of name: From the Javanese term aren for a similar palm (JON). Pinnata is a reference to the pinnate (featherlike) leaves.

Natural range: Tropical Southeast Asia with exact origins unknown (ELL).

Recognition: Large palm with enormous pinnate leaves to 20’ long having drooping leaflets, these white beneath, the trunk with long spines and wrapped with black fibrous leaf bases. The flowers purplish and unpleasantly fragrant.

Landscape uses: Sugar Palm is a large fast-growing specimen tree. It needs a lot of space, rich, well-drained soil, and ample moisture (BA2, JON, PBCC). The tree dies after flowering, living perhaps two decades (MEE). The fruits contain irritating juice.

            Sugar Palm is just one of multiple Arenga species cultivated in South Florida. Dwarf Sugar Palm (Arenga tremula) from the Philippines is smaller (12’ tall) with long leaves  rising to 20’, regrowing from basal suckers after the main trunk dies post-flowering. It prefers a partially protected site with dappled sun. Likewise and perhaps more appropriately called Dwarf Sugar Palm, Arenga engleri, from Taiwan and the Ryuku Islands, is cold-tolerant and somewhat shade-tolerant, and clump-forming (12’ tall and spreading to 15’ wide with leaves only 5 feet long). Much larger is Arenga australasica, from Australia, rising to 60’ tall with leaves 10’ long. Arenga caudata from Thailand is a pretty clumping species just 6 feet tall. The leaflets are wedge-shaped with lobed, sawtooth ends (reminiscent of Fishtail Palm), and with a short caudicle or “tail” (hence the name caudata) at the tips. A particularly compact cultivar of this species is ‘Nana Compacta’. (This discussion based primarily on BA2, JON.) 

Notes: Sugar Palm is a commercial source of sugar and sugary products, such as wine, toddy, and vinegar. ELL gives 2-4 months for germination.