Phoenix rupicola Seeds | Cliff Date Palm
LATIN NAME: Phoenix rupicola
COMMON NAME: Cliff Date Palm
Plant Profile
Phoenix rupicola is a date palm that grows on cliffs, and it looks like a smaller, softer version of the date palm of commerce. The trunk is slender and often clustering, two to four metres tall, and the leaves are arching pinnate fronds with soft, blue-green leaflets. It is one of the few palms that tolerates cool, wet winters, which is why it is grown in temperate gardens.
The species is native to the rocky hills of the western Himalaya, in India and Bhutan, where it grows on limestone ledges and in gorges between about 300 and 1,200 metres. It is slow, and a trunk of two metres may be thirty years old. The fruit is small, dark and thin-fleshed, and it is not a commercial crop.
Science & Biotechnology
The genus is defined by its pinnate leaves and by the arrangement of the leaflets, which are borne in clusters along the rachis rather than singly. The species are separated by habit, by the shape of the fruit and by the size of the spines at the base of the leaf. Phoenix rupicola is one of the few that suckers, which makes it useful for a garden where a clump is wanted.
The palm is adapted to a monsoon climate with a dry winter, and it tolerates cold better than the date palm. It is also one of the parents of the ornamental hybrids sold as Phoenix species, and it crosses with P. canariensis and with P. reclinata in cultivation, which means that seed from a garden plant may not be the species on the label.
Uses & Benefits
The palm is grown as an ornamental, in temperate and subtropical gardens, and it is used in conservatories and in patio plantings. The fruit is edible but not worth gathering, and the leaf is used for thatch in its native range.
In local practice the fruit and the root are used as a medicine, and the sap is tapped in small quantities for a sugar. The palm is not a commercial crop, and its value is almost entirely ornamental, which is why the seed trade is small and the plants are expensive.
Growing from Seed
Seed germinates in two to four months at 25 to 30 degrees, and it should be sown in a deep pot, since the radicle grows down before the shoot appears. Soak the seed for a day first, and keep the mix moist but not wet.
The palm wants full sun or light shade, sharp drainage and a sheltered site, and it tolerates cold to about minus six once established. It is slow, so buy the largest plant you can afford, and do not disturb the roots when planting. Water it through the first two summers, then only in drought.
Our Take
A slow, cold-tolerant date palm for a sheltered garden, grown for the arching blue fronds rather than for fruit. Slow, but worth it.
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