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Livistona mariae
Also called Gregory River Fan Palm, Lawn Hill Fan Palm, Mataranka Fan Palm, Cabbage Palm, Red Cabbage Palm
Livistona mariae is the Central Australian cabbage palm, a slow-growing fan palm native to a few oases in the Northern Territory, best known from Palm Valley. It is grown as a feature tree in warm, dry gardens, and it needs sun, good drainage and protection from frost.
Livistona mariae, also known as the central Australian or red cabbage palm, is a species of flowering plant in the family Arecaceae.
It is found only in Australia with the best-known occurrence found in Palm Valley in Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory. There are more than 3,000 cabbage palms in Palm Valley, many of which are several hundred years old and form a lush oasis among the rugged rocks and gorges. This region is called Central Ranges xeric scrubland.
The species is represented in cultivation by two of the subspecies, one from the central desert, the other from the tropical coast. Livistona mariae are slow growing palm trees that eventually attain a large height and an emblematic form.
The subspecies L. mariae subsp. mariae is a desirable garden specimen referred to as the central Australian cabbage palm and presented as a feature plant. A specimen in an exhibition – along with the cycad Macrozamia macdonnellii from the MacDonnell Ranges – sought to demonstrate the horticultural potential of central Australia flora in modern gardens at the Geelong Botanic Gardens. A potentially tall tree with attractive foliage and fruit, Livistona mariae subsp. mariae has a may attain a height of 15 metres in cultivation. The surface pattern of the trunk is regular and neat in appearance, a feature of the persistent leaf bases of the earlier growth, and the width gradually narrows toward the crown. The leaves are reddish during early growth, forming fronds up to 3 m in length and extended out on a long petiole. The tree generally known as L.
The distribution range of the nominate form is restricted to a locality known as the Palm Valley, an area where the Finke River passes through the MacDonnell Ranges.
Millstream Palm · Australian Fan Palm · Livistona benthamii · Livistona boninensis · Fan palm · Fountain palm · Ribbon Fan Palm · Drude’s Palm · Livistona eastonii · Livistona endauensis · Blackdown Fan Palm · Livistona halongensis
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Livistona mariae 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.
