Australian Native Plants

  Ptychosperma macarthurii (MacArthur Palm)


Ptychosperma macarthurii photo
Ptychosperma macarthurii (habit). Location: Maui, Enchanting Floral Gardens of Kula

Photograph by Forest & Kim Starr. Some rights reserved.    (view image details)




MACARTHUR PALM FACTS

distribution map showing range of Ptychosperma macarthurii in Australia

Map is from The Atlas of Living Australia web site, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License


Common Name
MacArthur Palm

Other Names
Darwin Palm

Description
Macarthur Palm is an elegant clumping palm that grows up to nine metres tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 6 cm. The pinnate fronds grow to about three metres. It produces flower spikes up to 45cm long of yellowish green flowers from the base of the crownshaft. The oval fruit grow to juts over 1 cm in diameter and are red when ripe. This palm is popular in cultivation where it forms an attractive clump with multiple stems with smaller suckers at the base. It is a relative of the solitaire Palm (Ptychosperma elegans), the only other species in the genus.

Habitat
grows in rainforest

Distribution
Ptychosperma macarthurii is found in north east Queensland on the Cape York Peninsula and some of the islands in the Torres Strait. It is found in restricted parts of the Northern Territory around Darwin, and this population used to be known as a separate species Ptychosperma bleeseri. Ptychosperma macarthurii is also found in Papua New Guinea.

Growth Characteristics
Height: 9m
Classification
Class:Liliopsida
Order:Arecales
Family:Arecaceae
Genus:Ptychosperma
Species:macarthurii
Common Name:MacArthur Palm


Relatives in same Genus
  Ptychosperma elegans