Areca montana

Areca montana is a small, single-stemmed betel-nut palm from the hill rainforests of the Malay Peninsula, southern peninsular Thailand, Sumatra and Java. A slim green trunk rises to a yellowish-green crownshaft and a compact head of five to eight pinnate leaves with relatively few, broad leaflets.

Short, branched flower clusters below the crownshaft ripen into bright red, egg-shaped fruits. Growers may know it as Areca latiloba, the name long used for cultivated plants. It is a neat, shade-loving palm for warm, humid conditions.

At a glance

• Native range: Peninsular Malaysia, southern Thailand, Sumatra and Java
• Mature size: usually 3–6 m
• Light: partial shade, as befits an understorey palm
• Water: keep the soil consistently moist
• Cold hardiness: none; a strictly tropical palm for frost-free, warm conditions
• Indoors / outdoors: outdoors only in frost-free tropical climates; elsewhere a palm for a warm, humid glasshouse

Care

Grow it somewhere warm and sheltered in dappled shade, in soil that never dries out. It is propagated from seed. In climates with cool winters it needs heated protection all year.

Why Palmpedia: Grown in our greenhouse in Almeirim, Portugal, and supplied in 15 L to 35 L pots.