25 Types of Florida Palm Trees | Best Palm Trees in Florida
When it comes to beauty and resilience, Florida Palm Trees are unparalleled. Choose from the list of Florida Palm Trees to transform any landscape!
Palm trees are great to bring that tropical feel to the backyard or any other landscape. When it comes to Palm trees, how can one forget to mention Florida, where scenic attraction of palms and beaches are breathtaking. Also, weather in Florida is ideal for many types of palms; whether you want to know the Palms in Florida or are looking to plant a palm, this post is for you!
Without further ado, here is the list of Awe-inspiring Florida Palm Trees.
1. Queen Palm
Scientific Name: Syagrus romanzoffiana
Queen palm is a medium-sized plant growing from 30 to 50 feet tall and is considered invasive in Florida and some other states. Also known as cocos palm, it’s a great ornamental plant for urban landscaping but keep in mind that the fallen fruits create a mess by attracting insects.
2. Saw Palmetto
Scientific Name: Serenoa repens
If you ever were on a hair growth frenzy, you must have seen saw palmetto marketed as the leading hair growth ingredient on the product. Apart from enhancing hair growth, it’s also used in treating enlarged prostate and improve urinary function. Growing to a height of 7-10 feet, it grows in clumps or dense thickets and is a fan palm.
3. Fishtail Palm
Scientific Name: Caryota mitis
Although native to tropical Asia, Fishtail palm is scattered in Southern Florida and grows in hummocks and disturbed wooded areas. The foliage is unique and different from other palms with bipinnate leaves shaped like fish tail’s fin. It bears purple flowers and dark purple to red fruits, which are harmful to humans.
4. Lady Palm
Scientific Name: Rhapis excelsa
The Lady palm is an ideal plant to add a tropical flair to indoor spaces as it does well in indirect lighting. Growing to around 10-12 feet in the natural habitat, it remains 4-6 feet in tall in the container. Best keep it in partial shade as the direct sun can cause leaf burn!
5. Canary Island Date Palm
Scientific Name: Phoenix canariensis
It’s a tall Florida palm that can reach a height of 40-50 feet with 80-100 leaflets on the top of the trunk. It does bear fruits having edible pulp, but these dates do not taste that great. They accommodate well in the Florida heat as they are drought tolerant but often suffer from potassium deficiency.
6. Parlor Palms
Scientific Name: Chamaedorea elegans
Also known as Neanthe Bella Palm, it’s well suited for indoor space as it’s adapted to low light conditions. Parlor palms usually grow in small clumps with foliage that covers up the thin trunk. Fronds remain lively for about 40 days after being cut from the parent plant, making it a popular choice for flower arrangements, Palm Sunday decorations, and wreaths.
7. Dwarf Palmetto
Scientific Name: Sabal minor
As the name suggests, Dwarf Palmetto is a short palm tree variety with a thick fat trunk. Growing to around 3 feet in height, this Palm is cold, hardy, and can survive in temperatures as low as zero degrees F. The foliage is fan-shaped and has leaf blades longer than the leaf stalks. It produces white blooms, which develop into black fruits.
8. Florida Silver Palm
Scientific Name: Coccothrinax argentata
This small and slow-growing Palm is native to Florida, Mexico, and the West Indies in rocky and calcareous soil in the natural habitat. It’s a small and slow-growing palm with dark bluish-green foliage having silver undersides. Smooth and vertical trunk with crescent-shaped hastula is its distinguishing feature.
9. Needle Palm
Scientific Name: Rhapidophyllum hystrix
It is usually found in the coastal southeast South Carolina, southward to Florida, and across the coastal plain of Mississippi and southern Alabama. Needle palm is revered among Palm enthusiasts, especially in cold regions, due to its ability to tolerate cold and recover from the cold damage. Needle palm has a clumping shrub-like growing habitat and hardly has any trunk and is a fan palm.
10. Paurotis Palm
Scientific Name: Acoelorrhaphe wrightii
It also goes by the name everglades palm, Madeira palm, and Cubas palm; it grows in swamps and flooded forests of Southern Florida. Growing to 16–23 feet tall, it has slender stems that are around 6 inches in diameter. The shape resembles an inverted triangle as the clumps are narrower at the base than the top.
11. Sylvester Palm
Scientific Name: Phoenix sylvestris
This Palm is not in any way related to Hollywood actor Sylvester Stallone! Jokes apart, it’s common Palm in the Florida landscapes with a bushy palm crown made up of sharp and pointed leaves. The thick trunk is textured like a pineapple’s outer crust. The drought-tolerant and cold-hardy nature of this Palm makes it hard to kill Palm. Its also known as Indian date, sugar date or wild date palm!
12. Florida Thatch Palm
Scientific Name: Thrinax radiata
Found usually in the far southern regions of Florida, these palms grow well in sandy, calcareous soil in coastal areas. In the initial growth phase, it remains low to the ground before a vertical upright stem emerges. It can reach a height of 20 feet with segmented foliage around 4-5 feet wide and 2.5 feet long. It’s a skinny palm with a canopy made up of 10-20 leaves.
13. Red Sealing Wax Palm
Scientific Name: Cyrtostachys renda
The common name is derived from the fact that the crown shafts and leaf sheaths are bright red similar to the wax used to seal letters. It’s a tall palm that can reach the height of 35-45 feet when mature. It also goes by the name Lipstick Palm Tree is a popular ornamental plant for gardening and landscaping projects!
14. Bismarck Palm
Scientific Name: Bismarckia nobilis
Probably the most Bizzare Palm that you’ll come across with fat, fibrous trunk and huge silvery-gray to bluish fronds. It’s not native to Florida and isn’t a cold hardy palm but is widely seen across the southern states. Growing to a height of 20 feet, its intensely steel-blue, fan-shaped fronds are 4 feet long and wide!
15. Coconut Palm Tree
Scientific Name: Cocos nucifera
Probably the most popular and valuable member of the palm tree family is often referred to as the “tree of life.” In ideal conditions, coconut palm can reach an astounding height of 100 feet and provides food, fuel, cosmetics, folk medicine, and building materials. It can take 4-6 years to start fruiting with peak fruit production in 15-20 years.
16. Foxtail Palm
Scientific Name: Wodyetia bifurcata
The fine filaments of the arching foliage give it a feathery tail-like look, hence the name Foxtail palm. Although it’s native to Australia, it is seen common when it comes to Florida palm trees in florida. The trunk is smooth and closely ringed, dark grey to light gray color, which turns white as the plant matures. Fruits are olive green when young and turn orange-red when they ripen.
17. Chinese Fan Palm
Scientific Name: Livistona chinensis
Another palm tree that’s not native to Florida and is commonly seen in ornamental gardens in Florida. The foliage is fan-shaped, with the Palm attaining a height of 30 to 50 feet when fully grown. The great news is that you can grow it in the container if you lack space!
18. Pygmy Date Palm
Scientific Name: Phoenix roebelenii
It’s a small palm that does well even in containers and grows from 6 to 23 feet tall. Drooping foliage makes a crown over the trunk and looks very attractive, making it a go-to ornamental plant. In regions where the temperature falls below 26 degrees F, it is grown under glass or as a houseplant.
19. Latania Palm
Scientific Name: Latania spp.
It contains three species of Latania named blue Latan palm, red Latan palm, and yellow Latan Palm. The fan-shaped fronds can have a span of 8 to 15 feet across. The surface of the leaves appears silvery as it’s covered with whitish, waxy, or wooly down. Ideal for beaches as this Palm is salt tolerant and grows well in full sun and well-draining soil.
20. Mexican Fan Palm
Scientific Name: Washingtonia robusta
Native to Mexico this Palm is now naturalized in Florida, California, Hawaii, Texas, and other parts of the world. It’s a large-sized palm that can sometimes reach a height of even 100 feet in ideal conditions. Inflorescence can be up to 3 feet long and is covered with pale orange to pinkish flowers.
21. Florida Royal Palm
Scientific Name: Roystonea regia
Also, going by the name Cuban royal Palm, it’s a large and attractive palm planted in the tropical and subtropical regions as an ornamental tree. The trunk is smooth and thick with whitish-gray hues and has a distinctive green crownshaft with a characteristic bulge below it.
22. Ponytail Palm
Scientific Name: Beaucarnea recurvata
Ponytail palm is a brilliant palm to add a bit of drama and flair to the backyards and lawns. It’s an excellent houseplant for the container in cooler regions and also does well in rock gardens. The trunk base is very wide and can be around 7 feet across, which is the reason behind the name Elephant’s foot Palm. The thin and long leaves create a showy canopy over at the top, over which attractive creamy white inflorescence grows in the spring and summers.
23. Ribbon Fan Palm
Scientific Name: Livistona decipiens
It’s a cold-tolerant florida palm tree cultivar that can also tolerate salt to some extent and grows to a height of 30 feet. The foliage is the most attractive feature of this Palm as they are fan-shaped and are split into long and thin sections. The thin partitions are graceful and look a lot like ribbons hence the name.
24. Montgomery Palm
Scientific Name: Veitchia arecina
Growing from 25-35 feet tall, this palm sports white or yellow blooms in springs and summers. A slender and tall trunk with pinnate leaves makes it a good landscape plant. Add it to the list of some of the best florida palm trees!
25. Alexander Palm Tree
Scientific Name: Ptychosperma elegans
Growing to a moderate height of 25 feet, the Alexander palm tree has the same stature as Alexander the great. In nature, its solo growing habit is the reason for another common name, ‘Solitaire Palm.’ As the size of the fronds or head is moderate in size, it’s well suited for narrow spaces. It grows well in places with ample direct sunlight hence Florida.