Dypsis lutea

Family: Arecaceae    Palm Tree

Common Name: None known

Scientific Synonymy:
Neophloga lutea, Neophloga lutea var. transiens

Cold Hardiness Zone: 9b     View the UK and US zone maps

Dypsis lutea Information

A solitary, smallish, water-loving, moderately slow growing, monoecious, forest understorey palm. Rare in cultivation and critically endangered in the wild. It has a smooth, black stem, 3 m. (10 ft.) tall, 0.8 cm. (0.3 inch) diameter with spaced ring leaf scars, and small entire un-segmented, pinnate (feather) leaves, 0.5 m. (1.6 ft.) long, 0.03 m. (0.1 ft.) wide, light green above and beneath.

This plant is suitable as a houseplant or conservatory plant.

Dypsis lutea can survive freezing temperatures to about -3.8°C (25°F), but freezing is best avoided. It naturally occurs in wet rainforest or seasonally wet forest in montane locations. In this type of natural environment temperature fluctuations are slight, and this palm prefers a constantly cool or mild climate with little temperature difference between day & night, and Summer & Winter. Under extreme freezing conditions we recommend you keep this palm as dry as possible, and well wrapped up.

General Information

Critically endangered; There is only one recently found location in the Masoala area. The other known locations in Moramanga were noted more than 80 years ago and are now lost.

Distribution

Native to: Madagascar

Lowland and submontane rain forest; ridge tops 40-1100 m. elevation.

Location: Madagascar (-15.725994°N, 50.097656°E)

Observations

Map may not represent the complete natural distribution. (Markers display observation data).