Howea forsteriana Seeds | Kentia Palm
LATIN NAME: Howea forsteriana
COMMON NAME: Kentia Palm
Plant Profile
The genus Howea holds just two species, and both are endemic to Lord Howe Island. Howea forsteriana opens a broad crown of long drooping leaflets that are each one-nerved, on a straight single trunk marked with rings; Howea belmoreana is stiffer and more upright, with the leaflets held in a curve rather than a droop. The two overlap on the island yet stay distinct, and they sort by ground: forsteriana sits on the calcareous coastal sands, belmoreana on the volcanic slopes.
The trunk is smooth and grey-green with faint rings from old leaf bases, and it stays single and unbranched. The plant is monoecious, with both sexes in the same inflorescence; the flowers are arranged in triads of one female and two males, tucked among the leaves at the base of the crown. Ripe fruit is oval and dull red, and holds a single seed.
Lord Howe sits in warm temperate water and takes salt wind, high humidity and mild winters, and the palm grows in forest and on exposed lower slopes where it meets the sea air directly. That combination of mildness and humidity is exactly what the plant asks for in a garden.
The kentia palm became the fashionable indoor palm of late nineteenth-century Europe, when heated conservatories and shaded parlours needed a plant that could hold its shape in poor light. It has stayed in the trade ever since. Outdoors it suits frost-free, humid gardens.
Science & Biotechnology
The palm grows slowly and takes many seasons to reach trunking size, which is awkward for growers and one reason laboratories have explored micropropagation through axillary buds and somatic embryos. Rooted plants from the island still supply the trade, and the slow juvenile stage is the price of a plant that will then live for a very long time in a pot.
Uses & Benefits
Palm seeds store their food differently from most seed plants, and Howea follows the family: the endosperm walls are thickened with mannan, the same class of storage polysaccharide that makes vegetable ivory hard enough to carve. In the leaf, the photosynthesis machinery is the ordinary chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. What is unusual is the light response: the palm holds its efficiency at very low light, which is the physiological reason it survives in an interior corridor.
Growing from Seed
Palm seed loses viability quickly, so sow it fresh. Clean the flesh from the seed, then lay it on its side in a mix of equal parts moist sphagnum, perlite and coarse sand, with the seed barely covered. Keep the container warm and humid, in the dark, and open it now and then to let the air move.
As soon as the first root pushes down, move the seed into a deep pot, since the palm sends one primary root straight down and resents being crowded or broken. Transfer it into a pot only slightly wider than the root system, and keep the crown above the surface of the compost. Deep, narrow containers suit this palm far better than shallow, wide ones.
Keep the compost evenly moist but never saturated, and let it dry a little between waterings once the plant is established. Feed weakly and often through the warm months with a liquid fertiliser that carries trace elements. Expect a slow climb to trunking size, and treat the plant as a long project rather than a seasonal crop.
Spider mites and mealybug are the two pests that find indoor kentias, and both thrive in dry, still air, so improve the airflow and wash the fronds. Overwatering in a cold room leads to root rot, which shows as yellowing lower fronds and a soft base; that is the one problem that kills the plant outright.
Our Take
If you want company for it, windmill palm is the one palm that will take real winter cold, areca palm clones the same soft look at a faster pace, and sabal palmetto gives a fan-shaped contrast in a warm garden.
Related Reading
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