A Resource for Pests and Diseases of Cultivated Palms
Identifying Commonly Cultivated Palms
Common Name
Bismarck Palm
Description
Stem: Solitary, upright stems to 20 m tall and up to 35-45 cm in diameter, bulging at the base of the stem, covered with remnants of old leaf bases in young palms, then with irregular leaf scar rings and vertical fissures on a gray background in older ones. Leaves: Costapalmate, induplicate, up to 3 m across, divided into stiff, single-fold segments about 1/3 the length of the leaf blade, with bifid leaf segment tips. The leaf color is a distinctive pale silvery blue to blue-green with a heavy white waxy coating and feathery, deciduous, cinnamon-colored scales. The leaf sheath splits to form a V-shape below the petiole, the petiole is smooth and sharp-edged or armed with minute teeth (to 1 mm long) along the margin, and the hastula is a spoon-shaped, asymmetrical flap. Flowers and fruit: Staminate and pistillate flowers grow on separate palms. Inflorescences can be over 1 m long with thick, catkin-like branches. Fruits are oblong, ovoid, or spherical and chocolate-brown in color (with some lighter brown mottling). Seeds are ridged and grooved.
Diagnostic Features
Field: Solitary palm with waxy blue-green costapalmate leaves and feathery, cinnamon-colored scales.
May be confused with
Latania loddigesii is also a solitary, erect palm with waxy, blue-green costapalmate leaves, but its hastula is triangular or arrow-shaped, not like the assymetrical spoon-shaped hastula found on Bismarckia nobilis. The wooly scales on the underside of Latania loddigesii leaves are pale, not dark cinnamon-colored as in Bismarckia nobilis, and the seeds of Latania are enclosed in sculpted pyrenes, unlike those of Bismarckia.
Distribution
Native to Madagascar
Additional Comments
This is a beautiful palm that can be a striking, but eventually very large, addition to the landscape.
Scientific Name
Bismarckia nobilis Hildebr. & Wendl.
Family
Arecaceae/Palmae
Synonyms
Medemia nobilis ( Hildebr. & H.Wendl. ) Gallerand
Bismarckia nobilis stem of young palm with persistent leaf bases attached
Bismarckia nobilis leaf of young palm
Bismarckia nobilis leaf tip
Bismarckia nobilis abaxial leaf surface, costa
Bismarckia nobilis fruit. Photograph courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Guide to Palms http://palmguide.org/index.php
Bismarckia nobilis in the landscape. Photograph courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Guide to Palms http://palmguide.org/index.php
Bismarckia nobilis interfold leaf fibers
Bismarckia nobilis cinnamon-colored floccose indumentum
Bismarckia nobilis somewhat asymmetrical adaxial hastula
Bismarckia nobilis inflorescence. Photograph courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Guide to Palms http://palmguide.org/index.php
Bismarckia nobilis fruit (above) and seed (below). Photograph courtesy of Mariana P. Beckman, DPI
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Bismarckia nobilis in the landscape. Photograph courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Guide to Palms http://palmguide.org/index.php |
Bismarckia nobilis stem of young palm with persistent leaf bases attached |
Bismarckia nobilis interfold leaf fibers |
Bismarckia nobilis leaf of young palm |
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Bismarckia nobilis cinnamon-colored floccose indumentum |
Bismarckia nobilis leaf tip |
Bismarckia nobilis somewhat asymmetrical adaxial hastula |
Bismarckia nobilis abaxial leaf surface, costa |
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Bismarckia nobilis inflorescence. Photograph courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Guide to Palms http://palmguide.org/index.php |
Bismarckia nobilis fruit. Photograph courtesy of Fairchild Tropical Botanical Garden, Guide to Palms http://palmguide.org/index.php |
Bismarckia nobilis fruit (above) and seed (below). Photograph courtesy of Mariana P. Beckman, DPI |