Voanioala Species, Forest Coconut, Palm

A very slow and VERY rare palm from Madagascar. It seems to be the closest relative to the modern coconut, but has an unbelievably large ...Read Morenumber of chromosomes (so hybridization with the coconut is not likely). Seed has been banned from exportation for some time now, so it is increasingly hard to acquire a specimen. It appears to have a little more cold tolerance than the coconut (though not the cool tolerance that would be needed to grow it in California), but there's no way I'm going to put either of mine through less than 40F. The grower who had them before me got down to 29F and they don't have any damage, so I think the hardiness thing may be true, but they wouldn't recover from damage as fast as a coconut can. For me they are one of my slowest palms, growing at about the speed of a Howea forsteriana (sending out maybe 2-3 leaves per year in optimal conditions), so don't expect this palm to rocket towards the sky like it's coconut relative. The largest one currently appears to be the one at the Sullivan garden in Hawaii, which is maybe 8-10 feet overall. If you grow one and live to see it set seed, consider yourself a lucky person. It's a beautiful adult however, looking like an extra lush coconut with notches on it's trunk (hard to describe, I'll upload a picture), so I think that the negatives pale in comparison to the possible positives of having an adult plant.

This palm looks like it might have a degree of cold-hardiness, though I have not tried it yet. It is probably the closest relative of the...Read More true Coconut (Cocos nucifera), and then followed by Beccariophoenix as the second closest relative. I have seen pictures of this palm in Madagascar, and it appears to be very similar in appearance to the true coconut. It might be worth a go.