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Queen palm

Mmcknight4 / Wikimedia Commons - Public domain

Queen palm

Syagrus romanzoffiana

Queen palm is a tall, fast-growing feather palm native to much of central, eastern and southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northeastern Argentina, and a popular ornamental planted in warm-climate gardens and streets around the world. Gardeners may know it by older names: it was formerly Arecastrum romanzoffianum, and for decades the nursery trade sold it as Cocos plumosa. A single smooth gray trunk, sometimes bulging along its length, carries a soft, drooping crown of long, glossy green, arching feather leaves made up of hundreds of narrow leaflets. Large sprays of cream to pale yellow flowers open in spring and summer and ripen into heavy hanging clusters of bright orange fruit about 0.7 to 1 inch long. UF/IFAS calls it one of the hardiest of the tropical-looking palms, but that still means USDA zone 9b (lows above about 25°F); anywhere colder it is a container or conservatory palm. It also escapes gardens: the Florida Invasive Species Council (formerly the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council) lists it as a Category II invasive plant in central and south Florida, where the Florida Natural Areas Inventory reports it volunteering readily in natural areas, UF/IFAS advises using it with caution and keeping it out of natural areas, and Wikipedia records it naturalized in Queensland, Honduras and Mauritius as well.

Climate fit: narrow (17/100)

Focal point

Structure

Container

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Mature size

39.4-49.2 ft tall · 20 ft apart

Hardy in zones

9b-11b

frosty to nearly frost-free winters

Life cycle

Perennial

Native in Illinois

No

Wikipedia records the fruit as edible and sometimes eaten: a hard nut inside a thin layer of fibrous orange flesh that is sticky and sweet when ripe.

°C

°F

Cold hardiness

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

Plotwright

USDA Zone 6b

-5°F to 0°F

Won't grow here

2050

2100

Zone 7a

Plotwright

0°F to 5°F

Won't grow here

In plain terms: This location has cold winters. Its winters are projected to keep warming through 2050.

✕

Out of range today and still out of range in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 2 ecoregions - 2 climate-resilient through 2070. Best matches first.

California coastal sage and chaparral

›

Fynbos shrubland

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What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun

Water

Moderate water

Spacing

20 ft

Habit

Single-trunked evergreen feather palm: a smooth gray trunk 8 to 15 inches thick, sometimes bulging, ringed with widely spaced leaf scars, under a soft, drooping crown of long arching pinnate leaves. It does not sucker, and it is not self-cleaning, so dead leaves hang on until they are cut off.

Care tips

•

Plant it only where winters stay in zone 9b or warmer; anywhere colder, keep it in a large container and bring it under glass for winter.

•

Avoid alkaline soils, or be ready to correct them: queen palms on high-pH soil tend to yellow and distort from iron, manganese and boron deficiencies.

•

Feed it with a controlled-release palm fertilizer, and cut off leaves only once they are completely dead, since the dying leaves still feed potassium to the palm.

Lifecycle

Planting

Where it is hardy (USDA zones 9b-11b), plant it in full sun and well-drained soil that is neutral to acid rather than alkaline: UF/IFAS notes that queen palms generally grow poorly on alkaline soils, where they tend to show iron and boron deficiencies. Keep it back from pools, patios, walks and parking, where its heavy fruit drop is a nuisance, and space trees at least 20 feet apart, a Plotwright editorial figure based on the 20 to 25 feet spread UF/IFAS gives. Colder than zone 9b, grow it in a large container of peat-free, loam-based potting compost and keep it under glass for the winter, as the RHS advises in Britain.

Transplanting

Move it gently and never gouge the trunk. UF/IFAS warns that Thielaviopsis trunk rot enters through trunk wounds, which are often made by rough handling during transplanting or pruning, and that once established it has no control and can topple the crown without warning.

Early growth

Water regularly while it establishes, keeping the soil moist but well drained, and feed it on a palm program. UF/IFAS reports that most queen palms in the southeastern United States show some potassium deficiency (small translucent yellow-orange spots, then frizzled leaflet tips on the oldest leaves), that it is not unusual for the same palm to show manganese deficiency as well (frizzled leaflets at the base of the newest leaves), and it recommends an 8-2-12+4Mg palm fertilizer with its nitrogen, potassium and magnesium in controlled-release form. In a pot under glass, the RHS advises watering freely and feeding monthly with a balanced liquid fertilizer while it grows, and watering sparingly in winter.

Maturity

A mature queen palm reaches roughly 39 to 49 feet with a 20 to 25 feet crown: the RHS gives more than 39 feet, Wikipedia up to 49 feet and UF/IFAS up to 50 feet. It is not self-cleaning. Cut each leaf off only once it is completely dead, since UF/IFAS notes that dying leaves still supply potassium to the palm, and remove the flower and fruit stalks at the same time: a single fruit cluster can weigh over 100 pounds (about 45 kg) and hold over a thousand seeds, which litter the ground and sprout unwanted seedlings. UF/IFAS describes three lethal diseases with no control (Ganoderma butt rot, Thielaviopsis trunk rot and Fusarium wilt) and notes that Fusarium wilt is likely spread on contaminated pruning tools, so clean tools between palms and grind out the stump of any palm that is removed.

Propagation

Grow it from seed; with a single trunk and no suckers, it cannot be divided. UF/IFAS recommends seed from half-ripe to fully ripe fruit with the pulp removed, soaked in water for two days before sowing in well-drained but evenly moist potting mix. Germination is slow and erratic, taking six weeks to six months, and needs high temperatures of about 90 to 95°F. Fallen fruit under a fruiting tree also sprouts on its own, which is why UF/IFAS warns of unwanted seedlings there.

Native range

Climate notes

•

Kew's World Checklist of Vascular Plants places Syagrus romanzoffiana as native to northeastern Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Brazil's west-central, northeastern, southeastern and southern regions, and classes its climate as seasonally dry tropical.

•

No USDA hardiness zone for this palm comes from the horticultural databases usually used for one: NC State Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox has no page for it, Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder has no entry for it, and the Plants For A Future page for the name is an empty template. The 9b-11b range is therefore a Plotwright reading of the Florida sources, taking the edges most of them agree on. The UF/IFAS fact sheet says it is suitable for planting in USDA zone 9b (lows above about 25°F); the Florida Natural Areas Inventory gives 9b-11; and a UF/IFAS Nassau County Extension answer also gives 9b-11 and reports queen palms that did not recover from freezes in Nassau County, in northeast Florida, which it places in zones 8b-9a. Wikipedia gives a colder figure, hardy to about 23°F (zone 9a). Treat zone 9a as a gamble rather than part of the range, and give any planting there a sheltered spot and protection on the coldest nights.

•

Colder than zone 9b, grow it as a container or conservatory palm. The RHS rates it H1B in Britain, a plant that can go outdoors only in summer, and advises growing it under glass in peat-free, loam-based compost in bright, filtered light.

•

It escapes cultivation in Florida. The Florida Invasive Species Council (formerly the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council) lists it as a Category II invasive plant, one that has increased in abundance or frequency but has not yet altered Florida plant communities to the extent Category I species have, and gives its known distribution as central and south Florida. The Florida Natural Areas Inventory reports that it volunteers readily in natural areas, in disturbed hammocks and woodlands of the central and southern peninsula, and the Identifying Commonly Cultivated Palms fact sheet on idtools.org records the same Category II listing. The Florida Department of Agriculture does not list it as a noxious weed, but UF/IFAS assessed it as potentially invasive and advises using it with caution and managing it to prevent its escape into natural areas.

•

It has naturalized outside Florida too. Wikipedia records it naturalized in Queensland, Honduras and Mauritius, and reports that the Queensland government considers it a potential invasive plant and discourages home gardeners from planting it, and that one New South Wales local council has classed it as a noxious weed. The Identifying Commonly Cultivated Palms fact sheet notes that the University of Georgia Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health includes it as an invasive species in California, Florida and Hawaii. USDA PLANTS lists it as introduced in the lower 48 United States.

•

UF/IFAS rates it moderately tolerant of salt spray. Wikipedia notes that its fronds often sunburn in hot desert climates such as Phoenix, Arizona, so it is at its best in humid warm-temperate to tropical gardens rather than desert ones.

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.

Acer buergerianum

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Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Acer ginnala

Amur maple

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Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Taxus baccata

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English yew (Taxus baccata) is a slow-growing, exceptionally long-lived evergreen conifer native across Europe (except Iceland), the Caucasus, Turkey eastward to northern Iran, and Morocco and Algeria in North Africa, valued for centuries as the definitive topiary and formal hedge tree. Its dense, dark-green needle foliage tolerates extreme shade and hard clipping, making it the premier structural plant for sculptured gardens. The honest catch is severe toxicity: nearly every part of the plant - needles, bark, seeds - contains cardiotoxic taxine alkaloids with no antidote, posing a lethal risk to humans, livestock, horses, and dogs; only the red fleshy aril is non-toxic, though the enclosed seed is deadly.

Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Better fit now and in 2050

Now: well-suited

2050: well-suited

Similar plants

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

Acer ginnala

Amur maple

Amur maple (Acer ginnala, accepted by Kew's Plants of the World Online as Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala) is a small, fast-growing deciduous tree or large multi-stemmed shrub from northeastern Asia - the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Korea. At 15 to 20 feet it fits where a full-size maple cannot, and it earns that place with three seasons of interest: fragrant greenish-yellow flowers in spring, which is an unusual scent for a maple and an early nectar source for bees; small glossy three-lobed leaves through summer; and reliable, often brilliant red-to-orange fall color that arrives early. It is also one of the hardiest maples, tolerant of cold, wind, dry soil, and a wide range of pH. The honest catch, and it is a serious one for North American gardeners, is that it self-sows prolifically and has escaped cultivation to become invasive across parts of the US Midwest and Northeast, where its shade-tolerant seedlings crowd native shrubs and understory trees in open woods, savannas, and prairies. Several states list it as invasive or a noxious weed. Check your local invasive-species list before planting, and be prepared to remove seedlings if you do.

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Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

Podocarpus macrophyllus

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Tree

Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

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Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

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Full sun / Part sun / Part shade

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Educator packet

Plant packet

Queen palm educator packet

Queen palm is a tall, fast-growing feather palm native to much of central, eastern and southern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and northeastern Argentina, and a popular ornamental planted in warm-climate gardens and streets around the world. Gardeners may know it by older names: it was formerly Arecastrum romanzoffianum, and for decades the nursery trade sold it as Cocos plumosa. A single smooth gray trunk, sometimes bulging along its length, carries a soft, drooping crown of long, glossy green, arching feather leaves made up of hundreds of narrow leaflets. Large sprays of cream to pale yellow flowers open in spring and summer and ripen into heavy hanging clusters of bright orange fruit about 0.7 to 1 inch long. UF/IFAS calls it one of the hardiest of the tropical-looking palms, but that still means USDA zone 9b (lows above about 25°F); anywhere colder it is a container or conservatory palm. It also escapes gardens: the Florida Invasive Species Council (formerly the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council) lists it as a Category II invasive plant in central and south Florida, where the Florida Natural Areas Inventory reports it volunteering readily in natural areas, UF/IFAS advises using it with caution and keeping it out of natural areas, and Wikipedia records it naturalized in Queensland, Honduras and Mauritius as well.

Scientific name

Syagrus romanzoffiana

Plant type

tree

Hardiness

9b-11b

Light

full-sun

Moisture

moderate

Spacing

20 ft