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Trithrinax campestris

Trithrinax campestris
Photo: Benjamin Grassineau, CC BY-SA 3.0

Trithrinax campestris, the caranday palm, is a compact, very cold-hardy South American palm of dry sabanas and mountain slopes. It thrives in full sun, well-drained poor soil and needs little water once established.

Family
Arecaceae (Palm family)
Grows as
Tree, Palm
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly; it is very drought tolerant and tolerates occasional flooding in well-drained soil.
Soil
Well-drained sandy or rocky soil; tolerates poor, dry ground.
Temperature
Comfortable in warm conditions; very cold hardy, withstanding about -9 to -15 °C when dormant, though it may drop leaves.
How easy
Easy
Native range
NC. & NE. Argentina to W. Uruguay
Climate
subtropical

About

Trithrinax campestris, the caranday palm, is a South American palm tree native of Uruguayan and northeastern Argentine sabanas, where it shares its habitat with Copernicia alba among others and extends also to the summits of mountain ranges of Sierras de Córdoba and Sierras de San Luis. It is a very rustic palm that grows in arid, well drained, rocky soils. Its distinctive features are its compact shape, short green to grayish foliage, and trunk fully hidden by dry dead leaf bases (coat) remaining from several previous seasons.

Where it grows

Trithrinax campestris prefers well drained, sandy or rocky soils (although it is resistant to extended persistent flooding). It is very resistant to drought, and -9 °C/-15 °C temperatures when not in growing season, although it tends to shed its leaves in these conditions. It is one of the most cold-hardy palms in the world, because it also grows in the mountains of Sierras de Córdoba and Sierras de San Luis; it is known that specimens growing at those elevations tolerate special cold conditions. It has thrived as far north as the British Isles. Seeds germinate quickly, but later growth is mostly slow.

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Trithrinax campestris 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.

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