ARCHONTOPHOENIX MAXIMA LARGEST OF THE KING PALMS

GREEN LEAVES – STATELY TRUNK AND CROWN

By popular demand I have put this great palm on special. This is the largest of the King Palm family. It got its name “maxima” by the flower size, but most have found it to be an aggressive grower, have a larger trunk and get taller than the other species of King Palms. It does have silver on the underside of the leaves. The crown shaft is sort of a yellow, sometimes blue color. It is a quick growing pinnate palm native to Australia. It’s rare to see them available and also hard to find good photos of this species. The plants I’m putting on special are the 5 gallon size, mostly singles. It tolerates full coastal sun and is cold hardy into the mid-twenties F. Another interesting thing is that sometimes they’ll throw a new red leaf as shown in one photo below.

Of note, our Archontophoenix “teracarpa” is probably a larger King Palm than A. maxima but still escapes exact species identification. It does not have silver undersides to the leaflets and has a blue crown shaft. It is routinely discussed elsewhere at this Blog. The habitat photo is by Luke Nancarrow AU.