This palm in indigenous to the Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. It is a rain forest palm that seems to be happy here in Wai`anae. The trunk can grow up to 10 feet high w/a diameter of perhaps 3 inches.
I bought this one from the Wal Mart store in Pearl City in a 5 gallon pot for a mere $19. Hard to beat a price like that. Anyway I decided to "pot" plant this one and so all I did was cut the top of the pot down to ground level and place it in the ground.
Here it is as it looked coming home in May of 2006
I then dug the hole and into the ground it went perhaps a day or two after bringing it home.
The hole was then filled in. The bottom of the pot was left in place. You can count 6 fronds on it now.
In February of 2008 it looked like this, with at least 9 fronds, so it must be growing ok in my desert :-)
