Fishtail palm
Also called Clustered fishtail palm, Burmese fishtail.
| Light | bright indirect light |
|---|---|
| Water | Every 6 days in the growing season, every 14 in winter |
| Humidity | high |
| Difficulty | moderate |
| Height | Up to 250 cm (98 in) tall |
| Pets | Cats not known, dogs not known |
Source: ASPCA Animal Poison Control, toxic and non-toxic plants, no entry for Caryota mitis.
No other palm looks like this. Instead of feathers or fans, each leaflet is a ragged wedge with a torn edge, exactly like the tail of a fish, and a mature plant carries hundreds of them. It clusters, sending up new stems around the original, which matters because of the other thing this palm does: each stem flowers once, from the top downwards over several years, and then dies. In a clustering species that is not the end of the plant, because the suckers carry on. Give it more light than you would give a parlour palm, more feed than you would give anything else here, and humidity. Handle the fruit with gloves, because it is full of irritant crystals.
Ailments observed
| Brown tips on otherwise healthy leaves | Dry air, hard water or a shortage of feed. Raise the humidity, use rainwater and feed fortnightly in summer. Fishtail palms are hungrier than most. |
|---|---|
| Fine webbing between the leaves | Red spider mite, which this palm attracts as readily as any. Rinse the fronds and undersides, raise the humidity, and check weekly in a heated room. |
Filed underPlants for humid air, Statement plants
Neighbouring entries
Areca palm
Dypsis lutescensAreca palm care that keeps the fronds green, with how often to water, what browns the tips, why spider mites arrive, and how big it really gets.
Parlour palm
Chamaedorea elegansParlour palm care for a shaded room, with how often to water, why the tips go brown, and why you must never cut the growing tip off a stem.
African violet
Streptocarpus ionanthusAfrican violet care that keeps it flowering all year, with why you water from below, what makes the pale rings on the leaves, and how to root a single leaf.