Traveler's Palm

Description:

They don’t have branches, just large leaves that first appear like a new green stick, then once they are full size-they unroll themselves. Each leaf is held on a long stem. These petioles emerge from the ground in the shape of a huge fan. Young plants look like a hand held fan or peacock's tail sitting on the ground. In time, a trunk will form and elevate the "fan". They grow 25-35 ft tall, up to 20 ft wide, and form multi trunks unless suckers are trimmed out minimum temp 32°F, zones 10-11 The males are a single tree with no flowers or pods growing out of the middle of the fan. On the females, flowers are shaped just like the bird-of-paradise flowers but are green in color. The females have all that and sometimes end up growing a second or third complete fan from the same trunk. Their leaves are almost exactly like that of the banana tree, and not like a palm at all.

Habitat:

Hale Koa Hotel grounds.

Notes:

They are actually members of the bird-of-paradise plant family. The traveler palm is more closely related to the banana tree family than the palm tree one.