Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Livistona australis
Common name
Cabbage fan palm, Cabbage tree palm, Cabbage palm, Fan palm
Family
Arecaceae
Where found
Forest, along streams, and swampy sites. Coast, ranges, and the eastern edge of the tablelands, north from Bournda National Park (south of Tathra). Also in Gippsland, Vic.
Notes
Tree to 30 m high (occasionally more). Fruit fleshy. Leaf stalks with sharp hooked prickles along each margin towards the base, and sometimes with a few small sharp prickles along the margins towards the tips. Bark rough, prickly with protruding fibres, with horizontal ridges from leaf scars, and vertical fissures. Young stems scaly. Leaves clustered at the top of the trunk, 110-450 cm long, 1000-2000 mm wide, round in outline, deeply divided, with about 30-70 segments, the tips of the segments entire or divided. Leaves fairly stiff, bright green, thin textured, shiny. Plants functionally male or female. Flowers creamy white, 3–5 mm in diameter, with 6 'petals' fused at the base. Flowers in clusters of 1-4, forming many-flowered branched clusters to 150 cm long. Flowering: winter-summer. Fruit red turning purple to black, hardly juicy, 1-2.2 cm diameter.
Protected NSW. Vulnerable Vic. Listed in the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Livistona~australis (accessed 22 January, 2021)
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