Pronunciation: try-THRIN-ax shih-zoe-FILE-uh
Common Name: none
Trithrinax schizophylla is a fairly rare palm for California due to lack of plant source mostly, but also due to lack of popularity (most likely due to lack of experiences with this palm). It is an excellent palm for California and deserves to be grown far more often than it is, and maybe it will become more popular in the near future. There seems to be some confusion also what this species looks like, though most descriptions of it are the same. But some Trithrinax campestris in southern California have been labeled as this species but are clearly not. No mature palms in California (yet).
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Appearance and Biology
- Habit: clustering with a crown of about 10-20 fan leaves per stem
- Height: 8' estimate
- Trunk: multiple; 3"-4" thick; covered densely with fiber and some old spines and leaf bases (clean trunk is rarely visible); long spines up to 9", sharp and stiff arm the top of each trunk among the leaf bases
- Crownshaft: none
- Spread: 3'-6'+
- Leaf Description: palmate; medium green to grey-green or less commonly, waxy grey; deeply divided nearly all the way to the leaf blade base; semi-circular; moderately stiff, but some leaflet drooping; leaflets notably thin relative to other two species of Trithrinax, and also fairly deeply divided themselves to 1/3 or more of their length; sharp tips at the end of each leaflet; 2'-3' long
- Petiole/Leaf bases: medium green; 1' long; thin; unarmed; un-split leaf bases
- Reproduction: monoecious
- Inflorescence:
- Fruit:
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Horticultural Characteristics
- Minimum Temp: 22F
- Drought Tolerance: moderate
- Dry Heat Tolerance: good
- Wind Tolerance: very good
- Salt Tolerance: unknown
- Growth Rate: very slow
- Soil Preference: adaptable
- Light Requirement: partial to full sun
- Human Hazards: sharp leaflet tips and very sharp, long, thin spines atop each trunk among the leaf bases/crown
- Disease or Horticultural Problems: none known yet
- Transplants?: a bit touchy when comes to transplanting
- Indoor?: unknown
- Availability: very rare- only occasionally showing up on specialty palm nursery lists
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