Basselinia Species, New Caledonia Palm

I am growing a specimen of A, glabrata in my greenhouse in the ground. I received the seedling about 2 years ago as a 12" tall plant in a...Read More 4" pot. It is now about 4 feet tall and growing extremely well. Greenhouse conditions are: very bright almost full sun (diffused through clear Lexan roof glazing), night time temp range 55-78F year round, daytime temp range 70-90F.

This is an attractive tree, but a little too tender to grow in the areas of southern California where I live, but there are folks in bett...Read Moreer climates here that are growing this palm.

It is a very dainty palm, growing up to 40' in the wild (New Caledonia), but VERY slow here. It will be decades before it can reach half that height here in So Cal. It has a really skinny stem/trunk (6" diameter) and a very long, graceful dark-green-yellow crownshaft, right below which all the flowers pop out in various stages of development.

It is one of the only palms to crank out 'stacked' inflorescences- a mature palm will make huge (for a palm) flowers in about 4-5 columns all the way around the trunk, one on top of the other... for landscaping purposes, these detract from the look of the palm and can be removed.

Officially moved from Alloschmidia to Basselinia 2008. Another palm genus bites the dust.