Piper Palm House
The Piper Palm House was created to house exotic varieties of tropical plants, including palms. The Park Director, John Karel has carefully planned and executed every step to preserve this landmark for the future generations. In 2008 David Knoll the foremost tropical plant and palm expert was contacted to design an original and unique look. The new design captures the founder’s imaginative intent. The exotic plants have been gathered from all around the world. Please take a moment and browse the gallery below.
The Piper Palm House is an none-for-profit organization, which accepts donations for continual care and new initiatives. Please consider a visit or hosting an event in this tropical paradise. Bring your camera to savor the moment.
Walter Knoll Florist can design and maintain a plant paradise for you.
Below are picture and description of the actual plants in the Piper Palm House.
Alexander Palm
Synonymy:
Seaforthia elegans (Ptychosperma elegans)
Common Names:
Solitaire Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
Tropical rain-forest throughout northern Australia.
Description:
This is a single, slender, grey trunked palm to 10m. It carries a small head of semi-erect leaves, each pinnae notched in the typical Ptychosperma fashion, and produces bright red fruits.
General:
Solitaires are produced in the thousands by nurseries in the south as indoor or patio palms. Given a shady spot, they grow slim and elegant, holding a crown of dark green leaves above a green crown shaft. Irrigation, fertilizer and mulch are necessary. No garden would be without the odd corner to accommodate a specimen or two. Not used very much in public plantings, but popular locally (Northern Territory) as a tub palm. Becoming very popular with landscapers because the leaves aren’t as big and hard to deal with as the widely used Archontophoenix Alexandrae.
Wodyetia bifurcate
Common Names:
Foxtail Palm
Habitat:
Exposed gravel hill tops on Cape Melville on Cape York, north Queensland.
Description:
Very attractive palm with long (2-3m.) plumose leaves (hence the name ‘Foxtail’), and up to 10m tall with a grey trunk. It produces large (about the size of a duck egg) orange fruit.
General:
This spectacular palm was only discovered in the late 1970′s and because of demand for seeds and it being endemic to only a very small area there developed a flourishing black market in its seed for several years. Even today, the Queensland Government still has the palm on its endangered species list, even though there are now tens of thousands of the palms growing throughout the world, many of which are now fruiting.
Adonidia merrillii
Synonymy:
Veitchia merrillii
Common Names:
Christmas Palm
Distribution:
Philippines
Habitat:
Rainforest
Description:
A very attractive, medium sized, slender, solitary palm with a neat crown of arching bright green leaves. They also have large bunches of bright red fruit (@ 3cm long) which are produced around Christmas time in the USA, hence the common name.
Culture:
Sunny, moist, but well drained position. An excellent, fast growing garden plant but one which unfortunately is very cold sensitive, and so it is only really suited to the tropics.
Aiphanes horrida
Synonyms:
A. aculeata,
A. caryotifolia,
plus many more.
Common Names:
Coyure Palm,
Ruffle Palm,
Aculeata palm
Distribution & Habitat:
South American rainforest.
Description:
A single trunked palm, which is covered in long black spines, which grows to about 10 m. It has a very attractive crown of light green, broad ruffled, spiny leaflets, (similar to Caryota, hence the old name), on pale spiny stalks. The fruits are bright red.
Chamaedorea metallica
Common Names:
Metallic Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
Mexican rainforest.
Description:
A very attractive small palm, with simple, undivided leaves, and a deep apical notch. The leaves are held upright, (like a shuttlecock) and have a very interesting and unusual metallic sheen.
General:
A very popular landscaping palm.
Culture:
A moist, well drained position, from deep shade, thru to full sun.
Rhapis Excelsa
Synonymy:
Coryphiodeae
Common Names:
Rhapis Palm
Distribution:
China
Habitat:
Clustering densely, up to several hundred stems, each with 4-10 leaves
Description:
As an indoor plant Rhapis Excelsahas no palm rival. (Not even Howea forsteriana) Its ability to handle low light intensities, low humidity, varying temperatures plus its suitability to pot culture, small to moderate size and slow growth rate make this palm ideal for indoor culture.
General:
One of the reasons for this palm’s popularity is its ease of culture. Rhapis Excelsa is very adaptable to soil types although neutral to slightly acid soils with good drainage and organic matter is recommended for best results. This palm as is the case with most Rhapis species is an under storey plant so for best results a partially shaded spot under trees or a pergola is ideal. Rhapis Excelsa can be grown in full sun as long as soils are good and adequate water is available. Leaves however will lose their deep green coloring, will become yellowish green and on the hotter days will probably burn.
Howea Forsteriana
Common Names:
Kentia Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
Lord Howe Island where it is widely distributed over the island, from low on the coastline, up onto the mountains.
Description:
A very graceful, solitary, medium sized palm, with a dark green ringed trunk, to about 10m tall. It has beautifully drooping, dark green leaflets, and a brown hessian like thatch around the leaf bases.
General:
Probably the most commonly grown indoor palm through out the world, and with good reason, being incredibly tolerant of neglect, and capable of withstanding very low light situations, as well as air-conditioning.
Chamaedorea elegans
Synonymy:
Neanthe bella
Common Names:
Parlour Palm
Distribution:
Mexico and Guatemala
Habitat:
Understory plant of the rainforests.
Description:
A very attractive, small, single stemmed palm, to about 2m tall, with light green wide, pinnate leaves. Its usually seen in clumps, since it looks more attractive this way, however this is just due to multiple seeds being sown together.
General:
Probably the most commonly grown indoor palm in the world. Very resilient to low light, air-conditioning, drying out, and over watering
Culture:
Shaded, sheltered, and moist.
Syagrus Botryophora
Synonymy:
Arecatrum romanzoffianum var borryophra
Common Names:
Pati Queen Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
Coastal woodlands of Brazil
Description:
Very similar in appearance to S. romanzoffiana, although slightly more robust to about 18m tall, S.botryophora has re-curved leaves, in which the leaflets are ridged, ascending, forming a V shape. They are regularly arranged and spread in one plane.
General:
A very fast grower. In Florida this palm grows at twice the rate of the common Queen Palm
Gaussia Maya
Common Names:
Maya Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
Central America, Mexico: AM sun, Full sun in Coastal areas. Inland, filtered sun
Description:
A unique species that is known for the bulge at the base of the trunk. Then, miraculously, this bulge shrinks as the palm matures, eventually giving a somewhat thin-trunked palm. Grows to a height of 20 feet, Single trunk, when young has a prominent bulge at the base of the trunk. Leaf type is pinnate (feather shape), usually only hold 4 to 5 frowns.
General:
Cold tolerant to 25 degrees
Trachelospermum jasminoides
Synonymy:
Apacynaceae Family
Common Names:
Star jasmine
Habitat:
China
Description:
Distinctive white 4-petaled flower, fragrant, early summer. Size: 1-2.5ft, spread to 20ft
Leaves: opposite, oval, thick and leathery, 2in long, dark green on top, lighter underneath
General:
Hardiness to 16°F
Caryota mitis
Common Names:
Fishtail Palm
Climate Zones:
Warm temperate to tropical areas. Can tolerate light frosts.
Habitat:
Tropical rainforests from India through to Southeast Asia.
Description:
This is a clustering palm, which can form a clump up to 8 meters (24 feet) high and 4 meters (12 feet) across at the top. The trunks are about 150 mm (6ins) across, are light green/grayish color with quite widely spaced leaf nodes. Each trunk produces flowers for several seasons, starting from the top of the trunk and moving downwards, but then dies after its final seeding. The leaves are light green, bipinnate, and triangular, closely resembling a fish’s tail in shape. The leaves don’t absciss when spent, but they are easily removed due to the palms size. The flowers are pale cream, while the fruit are reddish-orange, 10 – 20mm (3/8 – 3/4in) long.
Note: The fruit contain crystal oxalate, which is an irritant to eyes and skin.
Culture:
This attractive palm prefers a shaded, well-drained position. It doesn’t like full sun and being tropical, it also doesn’t like to get too dry. It is a very useful and attractive plant for the gardener, its leaf color and shape making it quite distinctive. Propagation is by seed, which usually takes 3 – 4 months to germinate.
PhoenixRoebelenii
Common Names:
Dwarf/Pygmy Date Palm
Distribution & Habitat:
Rainforest of Laos/Vietnam/Thailand.
Description:
Small to medium sized palm to about 3m, although older plants can be quite tall. Have very attractive dark green feather leaves, and spined petioles. Not self-cleaning, so old fronds need to be manually removed (it can get be painful, due to the spines).
General:
Quite a popular plant due to its hardiness, attractiveness and small size (good for small areas).
Interestingly enough, all the cultivated plants are single trunked, yet in the wild, they are all clumping, and single trunked specimens haven’t been found.
Culture:
Full suns thru to heavy shade, and likes lots of water (although not wet feet). Seedlings can be quite slow, but speed up considerably once they start to trunk.