Jelly palm

Eastern Australian temperate forests

Edwards Plateau savanna

Fynbos shrubland

New Zealand North Island temperate forests

Piney Woods

Willamette Valley oak savanna

Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

Puget lowland forests

A tough, medium-sized native tree of the eastern and midwestern United States, grown as much for its showy edible orange fruit as for its distinctive thick, dark gray bark broken into rectangular blocks. Small urn-shaped white-to-greenish-yellow flowers open in May and June, and the sweet fruit ripens after frost. Largely dioecious - a female tree needs a male pollinizer nearby to set fruit - and notably drought- and walnut-tolerant once established.

What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part shade

Water

Low water

Spacing

12-24 ft

Habit

Slow-growing, single-stemmed evergreen feather palm, 15 to 20 feet tall, with a stout trunk clothed in persistent leaf bases and a dense crown of arching, strongly recurved blue-green to gray-green pinnate leaves on spiny-edged stalks

Care tips

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Give it full sun and sharp drainage; NC State lists wet soil and full shade among the few things it will not tolerate.

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Feed it with a palm fertilizer. UF/IFAS notes it is prone to potassium deficiency, which its naturally gray foliage hides, and judges the severity by the number of leaves in the canopy: a healthy palm holds a full, round crown.

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At the cold edge (zone 8a), plant it in a sheltered spot; UF/IFAS says it can survive in protected sites in zone 7b, and older palms are hardier than young ones (Plants For A Future).

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in spring in full sun on well-drained ground. NC State notes that in partial shade the leaves grow longer and more graceful but lose much of their silvery color, and that the palm will not take full shade or wet soil. UF/IFAS reports it grows on a wide range of soils, including very dry and alkaline ones. It is slow-growing and ultimately 15 to 20 feet tall, which UF/IFAS notes makes it suitable for planting under power lines; NC State gives 12 to 24 feet of space to plant.

Transplanting

Plants For A Future notes that palms generally establish best when planted out young, but can be moved even when very large: new roots are freely produced, although the thick, fleshy roots are easily damaged or dried out. Stake a moved palm firmly so it cannot rock, water it generously until it re-establishes, and consider removing some leaves. Older plants are substantially more cold-tolerant than young ones, so at the cold edge of its range Plants For A Future advises growing it in a container with winter protection for a few years before planting it out. Where it is not reliably hardy, as in much of Britain, the same page says it can be kept in a pot that stands outdoors in summer and moves into a conservatory for the winter.

Early growth

Growth is slow (NC State, UF/IFAS). Water regularly while it establishes; once its deep roots are down it has some drought tolerance (NC State). Feed it as a palm: UF/IFAS notes it is prone to potassium deficiency, which shows as gray, dead leaflet tips and translucent yellow-orange speckling on the oldest leaves and causes early leaf loss, and recommends three applications a year (four in south Florida) of a controlled-release 8-2-12 palm fertilizer with 4% magnesium plus micronutrients.

Maturity

A mature palm carries a dense crown of long leaves (4 to 6 feet per UF/IFAS, up to 10 feet per NC State) and 3 to 4 feet flower stalks that ripen clusters of edible yellow to orange fruit about 1 inch across (UF/IFAS); NC State shows fallen fruit and stones collecting in the grass beneath it. UF/IFAS calls it remarkably disease resistant, with no documented cases of lethal yellowing, lethal bronzing or Fusarium wilt, though it is likely susceptible to Ganoderma butt rot, a soil-borne decay of the lower trunk. The Missouri Botanical Garden reports no serious insect or disease problems.

Propagation

Single-stemmed, so it is grown from seed, NC State's recommended method. The seed is notoriously slow and difficult to germinate, but UF/IFAS reports that cracking the stony endocarp in a bench vise or nutcracker and sowing the 1-3 seeds inside in warm, moist conditions (95°F to 105°F) can give excellent germination in as little as 3 months. Plants For A Future advises sowing fresh seed in warmth (at least 75°F), notes that stored seed is very slow, and says seedlings form a long taproot before any shoot appears.

Native range

Climate notes

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Kew's WCVP accepts Butia odorata for this palm, native to southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) and Uruguay, where it grows in a coastal band of restinga, grassland and rocky outcrops on sandy or rocky, often dry soils, often in small groves (Wikipedia). It was treated as part of Butia capitata until 2011, and nurseries and several references still sell and describe this palm as Butia capitata: the Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder and Plants For A Future pages cited here are filed under that name but describe this cold-hardy palm of southern Brazil and Uruguay. The true B. capitata is a more tropical, less hardy species that is rare in cultivation (NC State).

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Plotwright publishes USDA zones 8a-11b, taking at each end the edge most sources agree on, so no single source states the whole range. Cold edge: NC State lists zones 8a-10b, UF/IFAS rates it hardy to about 10°F (zone 8a) and able to survive in protected sites in zone 7b, and Wikipedia reports it tolerating brief night-time drops to about 14°F, with larger specimens taking 14°F to 10°F; the Missouri Botanical Garden (zones 9 to 11, possibly 8b) and Plants For A Future (9-11) start at zone 9. Warm edge: the Missouri Botanical Garden and Plants For A Future give zone 11, against the 10b of NC State.

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Heat and humidity, not cold, limit it at the warm end: UF/IFAS says pindo palms survive in south Florida but grow much better in cooler, less humid climates, so the humid, frost-free end of the range is where it survives rather than thrives.

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Drought tolerant thanks to its deep roots, and intolerant of wet soil, full shade and prolonged cold (NC State). The sources differ on salt: NC State calls it moderately salt tolerant, while UF/IFAS considers it intolerant of salt spray, so keep it back from the most exposed seafront positions.

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UF/IFAS notes it has not been assessed by the UF/IFAS Assessment of Non-native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas. Wikipedia says it is rarely recorded escaping from gardens despite wide planting, but reports naturalized plants documented in Florida (among them Hernando and Marion counties) and in Camden County, Georgia, and notes that USDA PLANTS lists it as naturalized in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina.

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In its native range it is under pressure: Wikipedia reports that much of its former habitat was being converted to rice fields, and that in Uruguay adult palms are protected by law and may not be felled or moved without government permission.

Plant this, not that

Better fit for this place

For Chicago, IL, these are replacement suggestions: similar plants with a stronger hardiness fit now and/or in 2050.

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Prunus avium

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The European wild cherry - also called mazzard or gean - and the parent species behind nearly every sweet cherry cultivar sold for fruit, including Bing. Fragrant white flowers open singly or in 3-5 flowered clusters in spring just before the leaves, followed by small sweet red-to-black cherries in early summer. A deciduous tree of 15 to 30 feet in cultivation (to 60 feet in the wild); birds and squirrels relish the fruit and have naturalized it from gardens into the wild across eastern and midwestern North America.

The original quince - a deciduous, often multi-stemmed small tree or large shrub of the rose family from the Caucasus and western Asia, grown for its aromatic golden-yellow fruit rather than as an ornamental. Solitary, five-petaled pale-pink-to-white flowers open on the current season’s growth in mid to late spring, followed by showy round-to-pear-shaped fruit that ripens from gray-green to bright yellow in fall. Raw the fruit is hard, bitter, and astringent, but it sweetens and perfumes a kitchen once cooked into jellies, tarts, and cider. Not to be confused with the ornamental flowering quince (Chaenomeles).

Better fit now and in 2050

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Cydonia oblonga

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Similar plants

Browse lateral options with similar roles, light needs, size, or native-range overlap; these are not filtered for a better climate fit.

Musa acuminata

Banana

A giant herbaceous perennial from Southeast Asia and the principal wild ancestor of most cultivated dessert bananas. What looks like a trunk is a 'pseudostem' - tightly rolled leaf sheaths - topped by a fountain of huge, paddle-shaped leaves that can run 6 to 10 feet long, giving an instant tropical effect. In frost-free climates (USDA zones 10a-11b) an established clump produces a drooping flower spike and a hanging bunch of edible fruit, then that pseudostem dies and is replaced by a sucker from the base. It is frost-tender: everywhere colder it is grown as a bold container or greenhouse foliage plant that is overwintered indoors and rarely, if ever, fruits.

Perennial

The Mediterranean evergreen whose leathery, glossy dark-green leaves are the bay leaf of the kitchen. Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes it as a pyramidal, aromatic evergreen tree or large shrub that can reach 60 feet but is usually seen at 10 to 30 feet and is often pruned to 8 feet or less for garden use. Trees are dioecious: small yellowish-green spring flowers on female plants, if pollinated, give way to single-seeded purple-black berries. Winter hardy only to USDA Zone 8, so it is grown as a clipped container houseplant farther north.

Shrub

Feijoa, also called pineapple guava, is an evergreen shrub or small tree from southern and southeastern Brazil, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina. It was long sold as Acca sellowiana, the name many gardeners and nurseries still use, though Kew's WCVP now accepts Feijoa sellowiana. A myrtle-family relative of the tropical guava, it is a distinctly different and much hardier plant. It grows 10 to 15 feet tall with thick, leathery, gray-green leaves that are silvery-white beneath, and in late spring and early summer it carries striking flowers of fleshy white petals flushed purple around a tuft of dark red stamens. The petals are sweet and edible, and the egg-sized, waxy blue-gray-green fruit that ripens in fall has an aromatic flavor often compared to pineapple and strawberry. A cold-hardy subtropical fruit, it generally survives 18°F and is grown in USDA zones 8a-10b, but it needs some winter chill to fruit well and crops poorly in hot, frost-free climates. Many plants are self-incompatible, so plant two cultivars for a reliable crop; even the self-pollinating cultivars bear more with a partner. Plants For A Future lists no known hazards, and UF/IFAS reports it is not invasive in Florida.

Shrub

A broadleaf-evergreen citrus tree reaching 15 to 30 feet tall and wide, with glossy foliage, sharp thorns on its twigs, and highly fragrant white four-petaled flowers. The large fruit (over 3 inches across) ripens pale yellow, often patched with pink, over juicy flesh that ranges from near-white to deep red by cultivar. A subtropical tree hardy only to USDA zone 9a, it is grown outdoors across the citrus belt and as an overwintered container plant farther north.

Citrus reticulata is the mandarin orange, a small evergreen citrus tree originating from wild populations in South China and Vietnam (the Nanling Mountains region), where domestication occurred at least twice from distinct wild subspecies. In warm climates (USDA zones 9-11) it is a productive, fragrant garden tree bearing the familiar loose-skinned sweet fruits prized worldwide. The honest catch is frost-tenderness: even a light freeze damages the tree and kills young growth, so outside the deep South, coastal California, and Mediterranean climates, it can only be grown as a container plant brought indoors each winter -- a significant maintenance commitment that most gardeners underestimate.

Once the dominant canopy hardwood of the eastern United States forest - an estimated four billion trees, prized for fast growth, rot-resistant timber, and an enormous annual crop of sweet edible nuts that fed people, livestock, and wildlife alike. In the early 1900s an introduced Asian fungus, chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica), swept through and functionally destroyed it: by the 1950s the species was effectively extinct as a mature forest tree. Surviving root systems still send up sprouts from old stumps, but the blight almost always girdles and kills them before they can grow large enough to flower and reproduce. The honest reality for a gardener is that you cannot reliably grow a mature wild-type American chestnut today. The realistic paths are blight-resistant backcross hybrids from The American Chestnut Foundation or transgenic blight-tolerant lines still being deployed - not a pure wild seedling, which the blight will almost certainly kill.