Acanthophoenix crinita
Habitat and Distribution
Mascarene Islands
Description
Culture
Until recently this was lumped in with all the other Acanthophoenix, but now there are three separate species of this genus.. .and that is a good thing, since otherwise I could make no sense of it from a cultural point of view... A. rubra, which is what all used to be called, was so marginal in my yard, I couldn't get one to last a winter... yet this palm did great. Now that they are from two different locations on the Mauritius and Reunion Islands, it makes sense they could be such different palms.
Anyway, this one grows pretty well in California, but is much easier once it attains some size. My first palm was a 5 gal and it grew straight through our coldest winters (probably got down to 28F/-2.22C, though everywhere else in the yard it got as cold as 25F/-3.88C without even a hint of leaf burn. However, starting out with a 1 gal palm was a lot more problematic- much slower, and seemingly more sensitive to cold. So grow this one up in the greenhouse to 5 gal size, and THEN plant it out.
It is not a fast palm, and doesn't like too much sun, but it is surprisingly hardy for it's source (tropical island). It isn't as nicely colored as A rubra, but is fiercely spiny, at least as a young palm. Not easy to prune (careful!). Not seen any mature ones yet. Likes a lot of water.
From a southern California point of view, this is a fairly easy palm to grow with overhead protection and well draining, moist soil.Palmbob 15:39, 20 July 2007 (PDT)
Curiosities
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