Caryota urens 5 Seeds

Did you know that many cultivated trees labeled Caryota are actually identified? The true C. urens grows only in South India and Sri Lanka and, despite popular belief, it is not most widely cultivated. Therefore, many cultivated trees are called C. urens only as it is the easiest name to apply to a large, solitary Caryota in a genus that is in desperate taxonomic confusion. What we find according to the true C. urens is a large tree with a thick and relatively short trunk, and huge, slightly ascending, rather flat-like leaves (as opposed to more slender, stemmed species with shorter, strongly tumbling leaf habit, such as C. maxima and C. “Himalaya”). As our seeds come from C. urens natural habitat in S. India, you can rest assured that it is true to name. Taxonomic problems aside, C. urens is a reliable and fast-growing palm, suitable for both tropical and warm temperate climates.