Palms   Chuniophoenix nana

Synonymy: Chuniophoenix humilis Distribution & Habitat: Found in open forest in Southern China and Vietnam. Description: A very attractive, small, suckering fan palm to about 1.5m tall, with stems/canes of about 2cm diameter and costapalmate leaves of around 35 cm diameter. It has hermaphroditic or bi-sexual flowers borne on intra-foliar inflorescences (i.e. both male and female parts are present in the same flower and only one plant is needed for reproduction) and hence self-fertilisation can take place. It has clusters of orange-red fruits. Culture: C. nana is an easy to grow cold hardy palm that prefers a high pH soil, and light shade, (but can tolerate low light). Likes it moist. Slow growing. Makes a very good pot plant.

Figure 1. C. nana

Figure 2. C. nana at Kew Gardens

Figure 3. C. nana stem and inflorescence.

Contributed by:

Colin Wilson (Figure 1,2&3)

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