Butia capitata

True Butia capitata is a feather palm of the Brazilian cerrado, the seasonally dry savanna of Bahia, Goiás and Minas Gerais. It carries a rounded, head-like crown of stiff, grey-green to silvery leaves on spiny-edged stalks, and bunches of aromatic, sharply sour yellow fruit that are a much-loved wild fruit in northern Minas Gerais.

Note that the hardy pindo or jelly palm sold worldwide as Butia capitata is a different species, Butia odorata. The true cerrado palm is rarely grown outside Brazil and is not considered notably cold-hardy.

At a glance

• Native range: central and north-eastern Brazil (cerrado)
• Mature size: often about 1 m of trunk in wild populations; up to about 5 m
• Light: full sun
• Water: copes with a long dry season
• Indoors / outdoors: outdoors in warm, sunny climates

Care

Give it full sun and a well-drained, sandy or stony soil like that of its savanna home. It tolerates long dry spells, and cultivated plants flower and fruit best with rain in the growing season.

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