Acoelorrhaphe wrightii

Geoff Stein - Author & Editor

Pronunciation: uh-SEAL-uh-rafe RIGHT-ee-eye


Common Name: Everglades Palm, Silver Saw Palm, Paurotis Palm

Acoelorrhaphe wrightii is a pretty hardy clumping fan palm native to Florida and Central America which can make a excellent specimen palm in the right location. If uncontrolled and watered regularly, clumps can become rather large and dense- nearly impenetrable. However, does well if pruned regularly and can even be grown as a few stemmed plant, trimming off suckers as they come up, making an interesting specimen for smaller spaces. Not a good palm for the desert unless watered nearly daily.

Synonym: Paurotis wrightii

Appearance and Biology
  • Habit: suckering with dense crowns of 20-30 leaves
  • Height: 15'-20' tall
  • Trunk: multiple, fibrous matte covering them (though often cleaned); 4" thick often with short petticoats of dead leaves on uppermost trunk; leaf bases unsplit and retained on trunks even after pruned
  • Spread: 6'-20' (or more in very old clumps)
  • Leaf Shape and color: palmate 1/2 circle, bright green dorsally but with a slight silvery sheen ventrally, with drooping leaflets; leaflets split about half length of leaf;
  • Petiole: narrow, flattish and armed with small very sharp, yellow teeth
  • Reproduction: monoecious
  • Inflorescence: long, thick, yellow,slightly arching central peduncle 2'-4' long with thin, wavy branchlets along length covered with white bisexual flowers
  • Fruit: green to yellow to black when ripe, spherical and 1.5cm
  • Seed: 1cm spherical dark brown
Horticultural Characteristics
  • Minimum Temp: 20F
  • Drought Tolerance: fair, but needs a lot of water in desert; prefers wet soils, even boggy
  • Dry Heat Tolerance: good
  • Wind Tolerance: fair
  • Salt Tolerance: moderate
  • Growth Rate: very slow to slow with age (rate of growth closely related to water availability and heat)
  • Soil Preference: moist, rich, but does fairly well on wide variety of soils
  • Light Requirement: full sun to partial sun
  • Human Hazards: sharp petioles (careful when pruning)
  • Disease or Horticultural Problems: mineral deficiency in alkaline soils; prone to Ganoderma fungus (not in California, though)
  • Transplants?: fairly tolerant
  • Indoor?: does fairly well, but needs to be kept away from traffic and in high light areas
  • Availability: moderately rare but sources can generally be found at specialty nurseries; large plants rare in California but can be shipped (where legal) from east coast


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