The many types of palm trees
There are thousands of species of palm trees. They are considered tropical in nature, but most people don’t realize that cold hardy palms can be planted outdoors without any visible damage from temperatures as low as -20°F. You can see this as far north as Canada and Switzerland.
Palm trees, like banana trees, give your home and garden that tropical look, usually found around swimming pools and family recreational areas. Once established, the palms are relatively maintenance free and are not significantly bothered by insects and disease.
There are two basic types of palm trees and we will tell you about the northern and southern palm trees.
cold palms (northern palms)
Afghanistan Palm – Pakistani Palm and Mazari Palm – This palm may be the most cold-resistant palm in the world, according to palm doctors. Its fruit is also edible and very popular to eat in that impoverished nation. The tree grows very slowly and thrives in desert conditions.
Dwarf Palmetto or Sabal minor – Blue Palmetto is widely distributed throughout the southeastern United States and grows to about 6 feet. tall in shady places. This palm is very difficult to transplant from the wild.
Needle Palm – Rhapidophyllum hystrix is a needle palm, which are the most frost hardy palms on earth surviving -20°F with little damage.
Saw Palmetto or Serenoa Repens – Sassafras Palm has been found growing wild as far north as Virginia, Washington DC, and New Jersey, and is cold hardy down to -10°F.
Windmill Palm or Trachycarpus fortunel is known to be cold hardy for many years and has been growing in Switzerland for 100 years along Lake Lucerne.
Adapted palms (southern palms)
Cabbage Palm or Sabal Palmetto – Sabal Palm and Palmetto Palm is the state tree of South Carolina and Florida. It is popular as a landscape tree in the southern states with excellent cold hardiness and transplant success. Sabal palms are tolerant of salt water.
Canary Island Date Palm – Phoenix canariensis or Majestic Palm. It is the most desirable palm to give a tropical appearance to the landscape. The trees grow to about 50 feet tall with leaves up to 20 feet long.
Chinese Fan Palm is a slow growing palm; forms very large leaves, which will give an adult tree a weeping appearance. This palm can withstand sub-zero weather and can grow inside patios. You can find this palm tree along the roads. This type of palm tree can grow up to 25 feet tall.
Date Palm is the true North African date palm. It has been widely planted in Arizona and California for date production. Date palms work well in shopping center landscaping.
Gum Palm is cold hardy to light frost, but will freeze in weather below 20°F. The long leaves resemble fern fronds, but the leaflets are bright green, stiff, and sharp-toothed.
European fan palm or European fan palm. It has a large crown of bluish-green fan-shaped leaves. This palm is considered one of the most resistant to cold and grows outdoors. The plant can be relocated and will easily survive with little transplant shock when moved, even during the summer months.
The pygmy date palm makes a good container plant when potted indoors. Fine-leaved, small-scale, single-trunked palm; grows slowly to about 5 feet.
Washingtonian Palm or Mexican Fan Palm has a tall, slender trunk, is crowned with large fan-shaped evergreen fronds, and can provide a very tropical appearance to the landscape.
Sago Palm is a feather-leaf palm found along the Atlantic coast beach and is 300 years old and 12 feet tall with umbrella-worthy crowns.
Phoenix Sylvester Palm or Toddy Palm is very similar to the Canary Island palm and the edible date palm.
Zamia pumila or Coontie Palm is known as the prehistoric plant, which dominated the earth 200 million years ago and grows 3 feet tall on separate male and female plants.