Pronunciation: FEE-nix row-bel-LEE-nee-eye
Common Name: Pigmy Date Palm
Phoenix roebellenii is one of the most common landscape palms in the world and a very good palm for southern California as well. Despite its tropical Laos origins, it is a amazingly hardy and versatile palm. Nearly all cultivated palms are solitary cultivar- natural palms are suckering but almost impossible to find for sale. Despite solitary forms, usually sold planted in groups giving the impression that these plants are suckering, while they are only planted that way. True suckering forms referred to as Phoenix roebellenii var. reasoner. Like all Phoenix, very promiscuous species and many hybrid forms exist, some being sold as the true plant, but end up being monstrously large compared to the 'pure' form (as pure as cultivar can get).
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Appearance and Biology
- Habit: single/suckering with crown of about 30-50 pinnate leaves
- Height: 10'
- Trunk: single/multiple; 4"-6" thick; covered with dense layer of carelessly woven fibrous brown 'hair' and retained leaf bases, unless cleaned; cleaned trunks have knobby projections that presumably reflect old leaf attachments; one of the most commonly 'monstrose' palms showing up to several dozen heads
- Crownshaft: none
- Spread: 4'-6'
- Leaf Description: pinnate; soft and 'ferny' look with numerous thin, drooping, soft light green to deep green leaflets; 3'-4' long
- Petiole/Leaf bases: 12"-18" long; petioles armed with very sharp, thin spines all the way to the trunk; leaf bases unsplit, often retained on trunk unless forcibly peeled away
- Reproduction: Dioecious
- Inflorescence: 12"-18" long, drooping; yellow-cream flowers
- Fruit: 1/2" oblong green to black when ripe
- Seed:
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Horticultural Characteristics
- Minimum Temp: 25F
- Drought Tolerance: moderate
- Dry Heat Tolerance: high
- Wind Tolerance: good
- Salt Tolerance: low
- Growth Rate: slow to moderate with age
- Soil Preference: very widely adaptable
- Light Requirement: full sun to deeply filtered light
- Human Hazards: very sharp, needle like petiolar spines- caution while trimming
- Disease or Horticultural Problems: prone to crown rot if watered with tap water from above
- Transplants?: fairly good transplanter
- Indoor?: has been used as an indoor palm, but needs a lot of light
- Availability: very commonly available at many commercial nurseries; even larger plants fairly inexpensive
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tall plants in deep shade, Lotusland, Santa Barbara, California
monstrose version, California
monstrose plant, San Diego county, California
monstrose plant in Orange county, California
true suckering form, Riverside, California
