Scientific: Chamaerops humilis (Synonyms: Corypha humilis, Phoenix humilis)
Common: Mediterranean fan palm, European fan palm
Family: Arecaceae
Origin: Western Mediterranean region
Pronounciation: CHAM-er-ops hu-MIL-us
Hardiness zones
Sunset 4-24
USDA 7-11
Landscape Use: Vertical accent, great for use around pools or water features, raised planter beds, nice tropical oasis effect, excellent container palm.
Form & Character: Upright, boisterous yet controlled, semi-tropical, very clean.
Growth Habit: Evergreen, perennial monocot, slow growing to 25-feet tall with extensive basal branching to ultimately form a multiple-trunked large specimen unless pruned heaviliy and frequently at base to present as a standard (single trunk).
Foliage/Texture: Glaucous-green fan palm with open, flat fond blades and armed petioles, sclerotic spines on frond petioles are consistently appressed forward, frond blades often silvery speckled on abaxial (underneath) surface, ends of the frond's pinnae are split; medium to coarse texture.
Flowers & Fruits: Dense clusters of orange- to cream-colored flowers on stumpy-looking stalks from axillary buds near apical meristem during spring followed by clusters of green, rounded fruits during early summer that ripen to black during the ensuing fall. Fruit clusters are often persistent and obscured by fronds.
Seasonal Color: None
Temperature: Mediterranean fan palm is remarkably cold and heat tolerant tolerant for a palm. It is cold hardy to to 5oF and can be grown in Seattle, Washington, but also thrives in Phoenix. This is one environmentally tough monocot!
Light: Full sun best to moderate shade.
Soil: Tolerant
Watering: Needs supplemental water during summer.
Pruning: Little needed, only to remove scenscent or dead fronds. Do not remove healthy, live fronds. Often people will severely prune stems at ground height to select for a single trunk effect ("standard" or tree-like).
Propagation: Seed, division of offshoots.
Disease and Pests: None
Additional comments: Mediterranean fan palm is a very clean-looking palm with little litter, though one should not be deceived by the "smallness" of this palm when young as with age it will become relatively large and spreading, unless dwarfed by continued growth in a container where its roots are restricted.
