Corypha umbraculifera

Corypha umbraculifera, the talipot palm of south-western India and Sri Lanka, is a colossal single-trunked fan palm whose stiff leaves span several metres. After three to eight decades of growth it flowers once, raising what is usually described as the largest flowering structure of any plant, a branched panicle of 6–8 m with millions of tiny cream flowers, and then dies.

For centuries its leaves were the writing material of South Asian palm-leaf books and the cover of the classic Kerala umbrella.

At a glance

• Native range: India and Sri Lanka
• Mature size: usually 20–25 m, with a trunk about 1 m thick
• Growth rate: slow, especially when young
• Light: full sun
• Water: moderate; fertile, moist but well-drained loam
• Cold hardiness: frost-tender; safest above about 0 °C
• Indoors / outdoors: outdoors in tropical climates; elsewhere a palm for large heated glasshouses

Care

Give it full sun and fertile, neutral loam, watering moderately and avoiding waterlogging. It needs an enormous amount of space and must be sited knowing it will one day flower and die. Keep it frost-free at all times.

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