Livistona benthamii

#1

medium sized weeping solitary fan palm from northern Australia and New Guinea where it grows up to 50' tall. This palm tends to retain the leaf bases 'knobs' along its trunk and leave are heavily armed with large teeth along the petioles. Leaves are deeply split, nearly circular and leaflets fairly narrow, even at their bases. This is a moderately cold tolerant palm, handling frosts down to 26F when mature, but being a lot more sensitive as seedlings. For some reason, this palm is not all that easy to grow in California, perhaps needing better water quality and some dry heat protection.