WATCH IT GROW
Native Cuban palm makes quite a show
Posted on Sun, Jun. 08, 2008
By GEORGIA TASKER
GEORGIA TASKER / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Copernicia hospita, a cousin of the larger Bailey palm, gracefully holds flower spikes among its pleated leaves.
Botanical name: Copernicia hospita
Description: Found naturally only in Cuba, this pretty palm grows to about half the size of its better-known kin, the Bailey palm or Copernicia baileyana. Yet, you don't have to be a giant to see the beautiful symmetry of the large crown and the way it displays its flower spikes so gracefully among the many leaves. The round, palmate leaves are stiff, waxy and bluish- or grayish-green. The leaf stem extends into the leaf blade, and the leaves bend toward the center. This technically makes the leaf costapalmate, like those of our native cabbage palm.
Height: 20 to 25 feet
Light: full sun
Culture: Because it is a savannah resident, living in a grassland dotted with trees, the palm is drought tolerant, although An Encyclopedia of Cultivated Palms says that it ''looks and grows better with regular moisture.'' You can reduce the regularity of irrigation with heavy mulching that extends out to the edge of the crown.
While the copernicias as a group are accepting of our alkaline soils, it is wise to apply controlled release palm-special fertilizer two or three times a year to avoid potassium deficiency.
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