Syagrus romanzoffiana

This palm comes from North and South America where it is found growing in swampy places in monsoon forests. It has a fairly slender trunk, marked with broadly spaced ring scars. The huge plumed fronds, 3 to 4 metres long are coloured a light soft green, arch elegantly out from the stem. The tree sheds its dead foliage quite rapidly so there is no unsightly dead foliage. It has 2 metre long yellow flowering inflorescence and ovoid orange fruits. It has practical uses, its foliage and used as a fodder crop for animals, and the trunks are used as piers in salty water. The tender growing shoots are edible. Makes picturesque avenues and handsome in the landscape. It needs plenty of water and fertile soil that isn't calcareous, and sunshine. Taller under cultivation than in the wild, it can reach 25 metres in height with an 8 metre spread.