Pronunciation: al-uh-GOP-ter-uh caw-DESS-enz
Common Name: Buri Palm
Allagoptera caudescens was known for years as Polyandrococos caudescens and that this palm was in a completely separate genus surprised few growers as it was a completely unrelated looking palm (save for the flowers and fruiting structures). It is a large, solitary, trunking palm with long, normally non-plumose, pinnate leaves (most others of this genus are small, clustering, mostly stemless palms with plumose leaves). Very ornamental striped white and green new leaf spikes in younger palms.
Synonym: Polyandrococos caudescens
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Appearance and Biology
- Habit: solitary with a crown of 10-20 feather leaves
- Height: 15'
- Trunk: single; 8"-10" thick; usually covered with thick layer of dark fiber and retained leaf bases, but eventually this falls away and see closely ringed, light green trunk
- Crownshaft: none, though a pseudo-crownshaft made up of overlapping leaf bases exists
- Spread: 12'-14'
- Leaf Description: pinnate; flat; variably plumose (most forms have leaflets on single plane, but some have leaflets on two distinct planes); some forms have leaflets in clusters while most have leaflets evenly spaced along rachis; leaflets end in blunt tip; stiff leaflets with minimal droop; bright green on top and markedly glaucous underneath- nearly white-silver; 6'-8' long
- Petiole/Leaf bases: 1'; wide, narrowing abruptly at rachis; un-split; retained on trunk for many years; unarmed, though some jagged edges
- Reproduction: monoecious
- Inflorescence: 1'-2' long; from within crown; arching down below crown; consists of thick peduncle and a tightly packed cluster of flowers (and later, fruits) in a corn-cob-shaped structure
- Fruit: ovoid; irregular shaped (some flat on one side); yellow-green; tightly packed into a corn-cob shaped structure
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Horticultural Characteristics
- Minimum Temp: 28F
- Drought Tolerance: good
- Dry Heat Tolerance: moderate
- Wind Tolerance: poor
- Salt Tolerance: unknown
- Growth Rate: slow
- Soil Preference: adaptable
- Light Requirement: partial to full sun
- Human Hazards: none
- Disease or Horticultural Problems: none
- Transplants?: unknown
- Indoor?: unknown
- Availability: rare
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