Red latan palm is a fan palm from Réunion, grown mainly as an ornamental for its red-tinged young leaves and stems. It is endangered in the wild, so buy from nurseries rather than collecting from nature.
Family
Arecaceae (Palm family)
Grows as
Tree, Palm
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly in the growing season and let the top few centimetres of soil dry out between waterings.
Soil
Well-drained, fertile potting mix or garden loam.
Temperature
18–30 °C; protect below 5 °C
How easy
Easy
Native range
Réunion
Climate
seasonally dry tropical
About
Latania lontaroides is a species of palm tree. It is endemic to Réunion. It is also used as an ornamental plant. Its common names include the Red Latan, latanier de la Réunion, and latanier rouge. The armored scale insect Hemiberlesia lataniae was first described from this species of palm, and has since spread around the world and proved to be a serious pest of avocado.
This palm was common on Réunion at one time, but the area in which it grows has diminished as land has been cleared for agriculture and for other purposes. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed it as being an endangered species in the wild, however it is also grown as an ornamental plant in various parts of the world.
[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 Latania lontaroides 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.