Common Name: Fishtail Palm, Sugar Palm, Celery Palm
Family: Arecaceae
Origin: Burma, Malaysia, Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra
Height at maturity: 1 to 12 meters
Hardiness: 0°C
Exposure: sunny, shade, partial shade
Plant type: palm
Vegetation: perennial
Foliage: evergreen
Flowering: summer
Flower color: yellow
Soil type: light and draining
Watering: normal without excess
Use: indoor and/or outdoor, isolated, veranda, pot or tray
Diseases and pests: spider mites, scale insects
Toxicity: not determined
Storage of seeds: 1 year in a dry place away from light at 3/4°C (refrigerator)
Description:
Caryota mitis is a slow-growing bushy palm that forms a stump of several stipes (trunks). When a trunk dies, it is replaced by a younger one which quickly appears.
It can reach, in its area of origin and grown in the ground, between 4 and 12 meters high. In a pot, it will reach between 1 and 2 meters.
When ripe, the palm produces large clusters of greenish-yellow flowers that give rise to reddish berries. The fruits are not edible by humans.
The bipinnate leaves have six to sixty leaflets in the shape of the caudal fin of a fish, hence its name.
An ornamental plant, this palm will do well outdoors in all climates where it does not freeze and indoors as a houseplant.
In its native environment, it grows in the shade and in a humid environment. It will therefore support shady or semi-shaded but also sunny situations.
