Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Syagrus romanzoffiana
Common name
Cocos palm, Queen palm
Family
Arecaceae
Where found
Rainforest, urban bushland, roadsides, disturbed sites, and along streams. Sydney area and south to Ulladulla. Occasionally coastal farther south.
Notes
Introduced palm tree to 20 m high. Fruit fleshy. Trunk smooth, grey, with widely spaced rings (horizontal leaf scars). Young growth stellate hairy (needs a hand lens or a macro app on your phone/tablet to see). Leaves alternating up the trunk, clustered near the top, 250-500 cm long, with a large stem-clasping sheath at the base, compound, with 200-500 leaflets each 20-100 cm long, 20-30 mm wide, green, strap-like, hairless, with entire margins and pointed tips. Leaflets borne in different planes, giving the leaves a three-dimensional, feathery, appearance. Male and female flowers on the same plant. Flowers small, yellow or cream, with 6 'petals', in groups of 3 where one flower is female and 2 male. Male flowers 7–16 mm long. Female flowers 4.5–6 mm long. Flowers in many-flowered branched clusters to 2 m long. Flowers mostly spring. Fruit yellow to orange when ripe, oval, 20-30 mm long.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW.
Weeds of Australia. Biosecurity Queensland Edition description: http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/media/Html/syagrus_romanzoffiana.htm (accessed 3 May2021)
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