Needle Palm

Size, growth and what to expect

Needle palm grows slowly, 6 inches to a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a clump 3 to 6 feet tall and 4 to 8 feet wide on a short stem that often leans and roots where it touches moist soil. Each fan runs up to 30 inches across, split into narrow segments, and the needles at its base reach 10 inches. A clump likely lives 50 years or more.

Clusters of small yellowish flowers open from April into July, low among the leaf bases and mostly hidden. Fuzzy, reddish-brown fruits about three quarters of an inch long ripen in fall. The spiny clump gives wildlife cover. In the wild, suckers more than seedlings keep most stands going.

It grows wild mostly on the coastal plain, from southern South Carolina through Georgia and Florida to Alabama and south-central Mississippi. Its home is shady woods on rich soil over limestone, wet hammocks, seepage swamps, floodplains and the banks of ravines and streams. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in South Carolina, at the north end of its range.

How to grow Needle Palm

Needle palm is a trunkless palm for part shade, and it also grows in shade or full sun. It wants a rich, moist soil on the acid side, from sand to clay. It takes wet ground and an occasional flood, and once rooted it rides out dry spells. Keep it out of salt spray, and plant it where winter winds cannot reach it. Set plants 6 feet apart and keep them 4 feet from a wall and well back from paths, since the needles wound. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the base of the stem at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stem. Sow the seed as palmetto seed is sown, half an inch to an inch deep, soon after it arrives, and never let it dry out. It is slow and takes six to twelve months to come up.

Water weekly through the first two summers unless the ground stays wet. Mulch over the roots before winter, since a mulch helps it through hard cold. Deer seldom damage it. Wear thick gloves near the base, where the needles are. Leave the suckers to thicken the clump, since dividing it among the needles is difficult and hazardous work.

Its small flowers are male, female or both, and weevils most likely carry the pollen. The fuzzy fruit smells foul, and black bears and other mammals eat it. It has no serious pest or disease.