BURRETIOKENTIA HAPALA AN EXOTIC NEW CALEDONIAN PALM FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

In the mid-1980’s I began to grow some of the very cool palms from new Caledonia. By 1995 I was totally into it and this led to my arranging the fantastic International Palm Society Biennial trip to New Caledonia that happened during my tenure as President in the year 2000. I just didn’t know of a better place for a bunch of palm enthusiasts to go and see some of the best palms in the world. This species, Burretiokential hapala, is one of those palms.

It is a crown shafted palm with a rather thin trunk of about eight inches that gets to a height of approximately 25 to 30 feet. I has an intriguing brown color to the stems and crown shaft area. It does not have the stripes you’d see with the Burretiokentia vieilllardii.Cold tolerance is about 25 degrees F, or perhaps a bit less. So, it’s comparable to a King Palm. If you can grow a King, you can grow this species. One of the keys to culture is not letting the ground it’s in go dry. This species, like Chambeyronia, responds to water.

Shown here are the band size I’m putting on special. The one larger nursery plant below is a nice 25 gallon. I’d recommend morning sun, a few hours of mid day sun, or bright filtered light. It’s a great species to grow.