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Coccothrinax crinita
Also called Old Man Palm
In Singapore: Thatch Palm, Mat Palm, Old Man Palm, Palma Petate, Guano Petate, Guano Barbudo (Grown in Singapore)
Thatch Palm is a slow-growing, single-stemmed fan palm from Cuba, grown for its fibrous trunk and fan leaves. It is critically endangered in the wild, so the key is giving it full sun and well-drained soil.
Coccothrinax crinita (guano barbudo, guano petate, old man palm, palma petate) is a palm which is endemic to Cuba. Like other members of the genus Coccothrinax, C. barbadensis is a fan palm (i.e. it has fan-shaped palmate leaves).
Coccothrinax crinita is frequently planted as an ornamental palm and the leaves are used for thatch. This tree is very easy to maintain and prefers growing in partial or full sunlight. It must have well drained, moist, non-clay soils, but it can tolerate basic soils, drought, and growing by the ocean. There are many uses for this palm, including using its fibres for pillows, the trunk for shelter, and the leaves for bowls. All of these uses have played a role in the rarity of this plant, as well as the destruction of its habitat.
Coccothrinax crinita usually grows in seasonally flooded savannas up to 500 m in size; occasionally in hilly areas. Also, it grows in moist and well-drained soils, preferably serpentine soils or soils with low nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. The main pollinator is the wind and fruits are dispersed by mammals like the Coccothrinax argentata species. The species is now critically endangered with only 60 – 130 trees left on the island of Cuba.
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Coccothrinax crinita by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
