Description
The Manila Palm is a small, showy palm, with beautiful cascading leaves and large bunches of striking red fruit at Christmas time, tree is compact, fast-growing, up to 6 m tall, resembling a dwarf Royal Palm. It has single slender stem, smooth, gray, swollen at base. Flowers small, greenish white, borne in long inflorescences, emerging at joint of crown shaft and stem, fruit borne in large bunches, green, turning brilliant, glossy red when ripe about December, looking like ornaments on a Christmas tree, hence common name, Christmas Palm; one unusual variety, Golden Veitchia, has creamy-yellow fruit.
Belongs to the Arecaceae or Palm family, which includes the Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera), the Royal Palm(Roystonea oleracea).
Due to its elegant, small size, palm used as a small landscape or courtyard plant, or as a potted indoor or atrium plant; sometimes planted closely in twos or threes when the palms develop an attractively curved stem (concave inward); popular ornamental in Manila, capital city of the Philippines, hence one of its common names, Manila Palm; tree prized by beekeepers for its high quality nectar; very susceptible to lethal yellowing disease.
References:
Arlington A. James. An Illustrated Guide to Dominica’s Botanic Gardens. Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division, Ministry of Agriculture, Dominica 2007
Jack Scheper. Veitchia merrillii. Floridata.com. Tallahassee, Florida, October 2003 [www.floridata.com]
Dan Culbert. A Palm for Christmas. Okeechobee County Extension Service, University of Florida, Florida, December 2006 [okeechobee.ifas.ufl.edu]
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