Pronunciation: liv-ih-STONE-uh car-ih-NEN-siss
Common Name: Bankouale Palm
Livistona carinensis is the only African Livistona, and surprisingly a fairly tough grower for most areas of California. It is a very slow growing palm here in California despite it's topping out at nearly 100' tall in nature. Once it forms a trunk it seems a little less finicky and grows a bit faster as well. Has highly ornamental black and yellow, long, dangerously armed petioles. Hard plant to find as well as keep alive.
Synonym: Wissmannia carinensis
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Appearance and Biology
- Habit: solitary with a crown of 15-20 fan leaves
- Height: 30' estimate
- Trunk: single; 18" thick; retained leaf bases most of its height, but sometimes clean and faintly, very closely ringed at the bottom; reddish-brown
- Crownshaft: none
- Spread: 10'-12'
- Leaf Description: moderately costapalmate; medium to mildly glaucous green with yellowish midrib; 4'-5' long; leaves nearly circular; leaflets split about half their length
- Petiole/Leaf bases: 2'-3' long, slightly arching; black near the underside of the leaf base and fading rapidly to yellow for most of the petiolar length; heavily armed with large, black, sharp teeth with fat bases; leaf bases retained on trunk for most of its height; un-split
- Reproduction: monoecious
- Inflorescence: 6'-7' long, arching beyond crown (so far, no California palms have flowered)
- Fruit: 3/4"; spherical; brown when ripe
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Horticultural Characteristics
- Minimum Temp:30F
- Drought Tolerance: good
- Dry Heat Tolerance: very good- probably best for inland desert climates with good ground water
- Wind Tolerance: good
- Salt Tolerance: good
- Growth Rate: slow
- Soil Preference: alkaline to neutral
- Light Requirement: full sun
- Human Hazards: vicious petiolar spines
- Disease or Horticultural Problems: tends to decline during early years for no apparent reasons- getting one to trunking size is an extreme challenge
- Transplants?: unknown
- Indoor?: unlikely to do well
- Availability: very rare, but occasionally shows up on a specialty nursery's palm list
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