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The First Men's Garden Club of Dallas
Hardy Palm and Tropical Collection
At the Dallas Arboretum
Palms, among the seven oldest known flowering plant families, give a tropical
and, because of their ancestry, almost prehistoric look to a landscape.
The Dallas Arboretum’s Hardy Palm and Tropical Collection, installed in 2006
thanks to the generosity of The First Men’s Garden Club of Dallas, is designed
to inform gardeners and garden designers of the species of cold-hardy palm trees
and other tropical plants that grow well in north-central Texas. While the palms
displayed here are selected for their ornamental attributes, many species in
their native regions are valued for their economic uses. In addition to being
sources of edible fruits, seeds, and oils, palm trees provide wood for
construction and furniture, fibers for brushes and ropes, and leaf material for
thatching and basket-making.
In general, palm trees require well-drained soil high in organic matter and
abundant water in the growing season. Light requirements are noted in the
individual entries below. The species in this garden can be expected to survive
in temperatures as low as 10º F, although some leaf damage may occur in extreme
cold.
For more information visit the Dallas Arboretum Plant Trials Palm page at
http://www.dallasplanttrials.org/palm.htm or the First Men's Garden Club of
Dallas at http://www.dallasgardeners.org/
Recommended Palms for North Texas
Brahea armata
BLUE HESPER PALM, GRAY GODDESS, BLUE FAN PALM, MEXICAN BLUE PALM
Native to Baha California.
Stiff silvery leaves and long, arching inflorescences with whitish
flowers.
Full sun.
Slow grower to 25-35 ft.
Brahea moorei
DWARF ROCK PALM
Native to northeastern Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental.
No visible trunk, dark green leaves, long inflorescences.
Yellow fruit clusters.
Shade or sun.
Hardy to 14ºF.
Grows to 8-10 ft.
Brahea capitata
JELLY PALM, SOUTH AMERICAN JELLY PALM, PINDO PALM, WINE PALM
Native to South America.
One of the most commonly planted palms in the south.
Long, feathery, arching leaves.
Jelly can be made from the orange or yellow edible fruits that mature in
summer—hence its common name.
Full sun to part shade.
Medium-paced grower to 15-20 ft.
Chamaedora microspadix
HARDY BAMBOO PALM
Native to eastern Mexico.
Its thin trunk and narrow leaves can resemble bamboo.
Bright orange berries.
Heavy shade.
Dioecious.
Grows to 8 ft.
Chamaedora radicalis
RADICALIS PALM, HARDY PARLOUR PALM
Native to northeastern Mexico.
Filtered light or shade.
Grows to 3-4 ft. in trunked and trunkless forms, with deep green leaves.
Chamaerops humilis
EUROPEAN FAN PALM, MEDITERRANEAN FAN PALM
Spain, Italy, Sardinia, Sicily, Algeria, Morocco.
The only palm native to Europe.
Leaf stems have sharp teeth.
Dioecious.
Full sun to part shade.
Medium-paced grower to 12-15 ft.
Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera
BLUE MEDITERRANEAN FAN PALM, SILVER EUROPEAN FAN PALM
A silvery-blue variant of the European Fan Palm that occurs at high
elevations in North Africa.
Full sun to part shade.
Slow grower to 10 ft.
Jubea chilensis
CHILEAN WINE PALM, HONEY PALM, SYRUP PALM, COQUITO PALM, LITTLE COKERNUT
Named for Juba, c.85-46 B.C., king of Numidia, who was reputed to have a
great interest in botany.
Native to cool, windswept areas of Chile. Few wild stands remain because
the trees have long been felled for the sap that yields commercial palm
honey.
Leaves green or silvery green; purple inflorescences more than 3 feet
long.
Grows to 30 feet.
Nannorrhops richtiana
MAZARI PALM
Native to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Leaves green to grayish-green. Flowers white with dark purple anthers and
pink carpels. Fruits orange when ripe.
Inflorescences arise from the end of the stem and die back after
flowering.
Full sun.
Clustered stems grow to 10 ft. or more.
Rhapidophyllum hystrix
NEEDLE PALM, PORCUPINE PALM, HEDGEHOG PALM, BLUE PALMETTO
Native to the coastal plain of the U.S. from South Carolina to Florida
and Mississippi.
Name derives from the palm’s stout trunk armed with long, tough spines.
The hardiest of palms, this species can withstand temperatures to -5ºF.
Adapts to shade or sun, but looks best in some shade.
Grows to 6 ft.
Sabal x Texensis
BRAZORIA SABAL
Native to Brazoria County, Texas, where the San Bernard Wildlife Reserve
is home to the largest stand of these palms.
Easy to confuse with Sabal mexicana.
Full sun to part shade.
Grows to 6-8 ft.
Sabal Louisiana
LOUISIANA PALMETTO
Presently recognized as a trunk-forming variety of Sabal minor (see
below), growing in coastal areas.
Bluish leaves are larger and more numerous than a similarly aged specimen
of Sabal minor.
Tiny seeds, but no fruits.
Part shade.
Grows to 9-12 ft.
Sabal Mexicana
TEXAS PALMETTO, PALMA DE MICHAROS
Native to Texas, Mexico, and Guatemala.
In the wild, the Texas palmetto used to thrive along a narrow area on
either side of the lower Rio Grande from the Gulf of Mexico upstream to
Hidalgo, south of McAllen. Remnant stands of these native groves now are
preserved in the Audubon Sabal Palm Grove Sanctuary near Brownsville, Texas.
Part shade to sun.
Slow grower; will remain dwarf for 10 years or more, but eventually may
reach 50 ft.
Sabal minor
DWARF PALMETTO, SCRUB PALMETTO, BUSH PALMETTO
Native from North Carolina to Florida, Texas, and Missouri.
The hardiest Sabal and among the hardiest palms.
A dwarf palmetto; rarely forms a trunk.
Small black fruits.
Full sun to part shade.
Slow grower to 4-8 ft.
Sabal Palmetto
CABBAGE PALM, CAROLINA PALMETTO
Native to Georgia. Common from North Carolina to Florida and the Bahaman
Islands.
Accommodates to a wide variety of soils and adapts well to a
low-water-use environment such as xeriscaping.
Young leaf shoots in the center of the palmetto are edible and reputedly
sustained the Spaniards during the early weeks of their 16th century
discovery and colonization of the Florida peninsula—hence the name Cabbage
Palm.
Small, black spherical fruit.
Grows to 50-70 ft.
Sabal uresana
SONORAN PALMETTO, SAVANNAH PALMETTO
Native to northwest Mexico, where it grows at relatively high altitudes
(to 3,000 ft.)
Heavy brown trunk and silver-blue leaves make it one of the most
decorative of the Sabal species.
Tiny seeds; no fruit.
Full sun.
Grows to 35-60 ft.
Trachycarpus Fortunei
WINDMILL PALM, CHINESE WINDMILL PALM, CHUSAN PALM, HEMP PALM
Native to northern Burma, central and eastern China, Taiwan, and the
Chusan Islands.
Bright yellow inflorescences.
Small, blue fruits.
Prefers shade.
Extremely cold hardy.
Dioecious.
Grows to 20-40 ft.
Trachycarpus takil
TAKIL PALM, KUMAON WINDMILL PALM
Native to the western Himalayas.
Tolerates heat; hardy to 5ºF.
Part shade to full sun.
Grows to 30-35 ft.
Trachycarpus wagnerianus
MINIATURE CHUSAN PALM
Little is known about the origin of this windmill palm, but it is
probably a form of Trachycarpus Fortunei selected and bred long ago in
Japan.
Why wagnerianus? One can only speculate.
Compact growth gives it a bonsai-like appearance.
Leaves are small and stiff.
Tolerates heat and cold. Hardy to 5ºF.
Washingtonia filifera
CALIFORNIA FAN PALM, DESERT FAN PALM, PETTICOAT PALM
Native to the borders of the Colorado Desert, and to California and
southwest Arizona.
The name petticoat palm derives from the shag, or "petticoat," of dead
leaves that covers the trunk almost to the ground.
Leaves are heavily armed with large, jagged teeth.
Full sun.
Cold hardy to 15º F.
Fast growing to 60 ft.
Sources
Hortus 3rd
Paul W. Cox & Patty Leslie, Texas Trees, A Friendly Guide (San
Antonio, TX: Corona Publishing Company, 1988)
Desmond Muirhead, Palms (Globe, AZ: D.S. King, 1961)
http://pubs.caes.uga.edu/caespubs/horticulture/coastalgarden/Palms/palmcollection.htm
http://dallaspalms.com
http://www.junglemusic.net/palms
http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Coldhardypalms/species.html
JPB 10/25/06
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