Cat Tail Palm

The cat tail palm anchors the back right part of our lanai. It will get morning and early afternoon sun. With a lot of sun, it may need extra water. We shall see. It should grow slowly according to references, which will help with keeping the cage free of damage.

Turns out that the cat tail is a clustering palm without any trunk at all- just STEMS and FRONDS.

Can be hardy in cold- maybe toughest of all the chamaedorea genus. Some sites say it's high maintenance, some low maintenance. They like humidity, and people put them near showers.

Apparently, Victorians decorated with palms indoors, including cat tail palms. Also, they seem to have gone out of fashion due to their fussiness. Different claims of how hard they are to manage!

Care and Feeding
Fertilize 3 times per year: spring, summer, autumn. More if sun seems to be taking a lot out of it (also water more, in that case). Should keep it deep green.

Trim fronds close to ground to keep palm manageable.



Interesting Trivia and Facts
Palm trees aren't really trees. From the reference below:

"Botanically speaking, they are large, woody herbs. A true tree is woody with “secondary growth”: its stems thicken over time, in fact, considerably so. That’s why the thin stem of a sapling turns into a wide trunk as it puts on layer after layer of new wood. Palms are monocots (more closely related to grasses than oaks or maples). Their “trunks” are actually stems (called stipes) and have no rings nor true wood. Whatever width the stipe has as it forms, it will keep all its life."