Most wind resistant palms

[jfrye01@live.com]

The recent high winds here in southeast Kansas have prompted me to ask this question...just what ARE the most wind resistant palms? And I'm not talking just cold hardy palms, any palms anywhwere. My guesses would be Sabals (My S. mexicana, with its stiff fronds, is handling the 40 mph wind gusts quite nicely). Also C. nucifera, Dates, and Royals...Low on the list would obviously be Trachies, which tend to look quite shredded when exposed to wind...any others anyone would like to add to the list?

-Jacob in Kansas, Zone 6B

[stevethegator]

Queens are the least wind tolerant in my experience. I've been through three major hurricanes in Florida and queens were the only common palms that had trouble.

As far as most wind tolerant id vote for the smaller coastal Caribbean species: thrinax, Cocothrinax, Pseudophoenix, etc. especially Cocothrinax argentata

[Xenon]

Dictyosperma? Satakentia? Livistona?

[palmsOrl]

I agree with the palm species/genera listed so far. I once read a report about Hurricane Andrew's effects which stated that Phoenix roebelenii came through the best overall with the least damage.

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

The hurricane palm, hence the name.

[Brad Mondel]

You should try Trachycarpus Wagnerianus. It's a lot stronger and more wind resistant than regular fortunei but it's just as hardy.

[fiji jim]

Walsh river king palm takes a beating here and spills the wind comfortably.

[fiji jim]

probably the best would be coconut trees by far

[Dave-Vero]

John Dowe (from Queensland) published wind research done at the Montgomery Botanical Center south of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Sabal is indeed highly wind resistant. The flexible costapalmate leaves seem to handle high wind very well, better than feather leaves. I think Livistonas also did very well. In Florida, Phoenix (date palms) also seem to do well. Syagrus doesn't, and Washingtonias have problems. In one odd case, a whole row of them were taller than the adjacent parking deck, all were blown into the deck, and all there stems broke at the top rail.

[cfkingfish]

Royals, Satakentias, Hyophorbes, Dictyosperma, Sabals....and Cocos. I would say Hyophorbe is probably built to be the most wind resistant palm out there.

[Geoff]

From the high desert here in California where it is windy every single day of the year, and I mean REALLY windy (hard to stand up sort of wind)... my species list is pretty limited since it is cold here, too... but Jubaeas are very wind tolerant, as are Chamaerops... Trachycarpus are not, except for wagnerianus (now just a form of fortunei.... but a wind tolerant form) is somewhat (looks sort of crappy, though)... Butias do well here in terms of heat and cold, but are not very wind resistant, and get the crap beat out of them every week. So far, all my Sabals and Livistonas have nearly been killed by the winds, so I would rate them poorly when it comes to hot, dry, or cold, dry winds. Phoenix also suck when it comes to wind tolerance, with the exception of dactylifera and (so far) theophrastii. And Queens are indeed hopeless. Hard to keep more than a single living leaf on one at a time. No wonder no one grows them up here. Washingtonias though are probably one of the best for this area... winds whip them all over the place and they still look fine. They are the only species that seem to tolerate the winds long enough to get tall (even Chamaerops seems to be a 'dwarf' species in this climate).

[Phoenikakias]

Cetainly Brahea armata and some Pritchardia from the windswept side of Hawaii islands. I aso wonder whether buccaneer palm is aso quite wind tolerant.

[dalmatiansoap]

Chamaerops and CIDP in the first place.

Not an easy task to stand up with this

Edited April 3, 2014 by dalmatiansoap

[Phoenikakias]

Hey Ante, this is a more relevant video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lj0uYReymtg&feature=youtu.be

[_Keith]

Dictyosperma? Satakentia? Livistona?

Livistona vary. My saribus gets torn up easily and always look bad. My decoras wispy foliage just seems to sway in the breeze hardly affected by anything even Cat 1 hurricanes just roll off of their backs. My chinensis seems to be in the middle.

[sarasota alex]

There are also different sides to wind resistance. My Veitchia filifera is firmly in the ground but leaves break off all the time in strong winds. I guess it's a rainforest Veitchia unlike many others. The leaves seem to be upright and have no elasticity whatsoever. So I'm now looking at only 3 leaves on it, with a crownshaft that has sheaths from 4 broken petioles. Looks like I've been overpruning it. It's basically a strong tropical storm away from only keeping a bare spear.

[Mike in Nelson]

Queens are the least wind tolerant in my experience. I've been through three major hurricanes in Florida and queens were the only common palms that had trouble.

As far as most wind tolerant id vote for the smaller coastal Caribbean species: thrinax, Cocothrinax, Pseudophoenix, etc. especially Cocothrinax argentata

Really? I would pick Queens as one of the better ones. Probably not hurricane resistant but certainly one of the more wind tolerant in my experience.

[stevethegator]

Yeah we had one that literally snapped in half! Many around town were uprooted, and the best looking ones were just completely mangled. The large, brittle fronds get trashed in those kinds of sustained winds.

Meanwhile, most of the other common palms remained firmly rooted, didn't break, and regrew their crowns fairly quickly

[Kumar]

As a species I think coconut will be the hardiest tolerance to wind. I was holidaying in the Andaman islands some years ago and the coastline is jampacked with coconut palms that sway just a bit in the strongest sea-storms (when chips are grounded). Even next door there's a 70 foot high coconut with a top heavy crown and full load of fruit that handles the norwester gales (approx 100 kmph) with no probs. Royals are also ok but I suspect their rigid trunks may cause them to snap more easily than coconuts whose stems can tolerate some deformity.

Edited May 5, 2014 by Kumar

[Dave-Vero]

Syagrus botryophora fared poorly at Montgomery Botanical Center. It's fast-growing and likely less wind tolerant than S. romanzoffiana.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

A book that covers this subject fairly well is called "Stormscaping". It was written by Pamela Crawford and includes input from boupcoup UF/IFAS extension agents. She assembled the results after our big ole hurricane years of '04 and '05.

#1 in Florida is Phoenix roebellenii, even able to withstand Cat 5 Hurricane force winds with grace (assuming some man-made shrapnel doesn't fly in and whack it). # 2 is Sabal palmetto (no surprise there...they are flying debris catchers). After #1 and #2, they didn't give them numerical ratings but other Good or Great palms for hurricane zones: Serenoa repens; Thatch palms (Thrinax/Cocothrinax/Leucothrinax), others in the genus Phoenix, Foxtails, Butia, Adonidia. Palms with low wind tolerance: Queens are just bad, the worst of the palms in their survey and W. robusta are a bit shaky (though she doesn't mention them). Some other palms get beat up but recover (Areca/Dypsis lutescens, for example). Overall, most palms are good and the bad ones are exceptions, at least up to category 4 storms.... In cat 5's lots of stuff fails (like Royals for example) that withstand cat 4 or lower. Of course, if I have to deal with winds 160mph or higher, I'll consider suvival (my survival) as a win. Its hard to imagine a storm with winds at 175mph (270 kph) and gusts over 200 (310 kph)! I hope I never have to endure anything like that. I think I'm digressing, here.

[Alicehunter2000]

D-Soap.......that video almost did not even look real. Looked like a painting or CGI. Pretty interesting place you live.

Keith....it figures that I planted my L. saribus in a wind tunnel....par for the course...par for the course.

[dalmatiansoap]

D-Soap.......that video almost did not even look real. Looked like a painting or CGI. Pretty interesting place you live.

Thanks. Its quite hard to film the wind in its full strenght.

[CLINODAVE]

Here, near Hilo, I think it's interesting that our wild Archontophoenix alex. palms start displaying broken leaflets in, say, a 20 mph wind. Maybe the wet climate here softens them up??

OTOH, Veitchia joannis and most Clinostigmas handle gusty winds with little apparent damage.

Rhopaloblaste augusta seems pretty tolerant of wind; I guess its home in the Andaman Islands receives a fair amount of wind from maritime events so the palms must have adapted to that. Similarly, Veitchia and Clinostigma (partic. Samoense) are from islands that endure relatively regular hurricanes, which I think may account for their wind tolerance.

Of course, wind tolerance is relative; here on the Big Island, we don't get much in the way of truly strong winds. And, we haven't had a hurricane hit the Big Island in decades, if not longer. But with climate change, I suspect that we may experience one sooner than later.

[Phoenikakias]

An upload failed

Edited May 20, 2014 by Phoenikakias

[Jeff Searle]

Living hear in south Florida all my life, I have experienced a few hurricanes over the years. Some might not have been direct hits where I live, but close enough to do some pretty good damage. After Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992, I along with a few others from the Broward Chapter of the IPS went down to do some clean up at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. I do remember seeing many of the big Royals and Veitchias hold up pretty well but, lost many of their leaves. And this is natures way of surviving. Once most of the leaves were gone, right down to the spear leaf, these were pretty tough and survived. Some of the biggest Borassus and Copernicias went down, but because they were stood up in a few days, survived. I do know Satakentia and Kentiopsis are real wind resisant. Saw this first hand with Hurricane Wilma that was a direct hit here. Even my very tall Acrocomia crispa that has a nice lean to it, came through like a champ.

Oh, almost forgot, The Hurricane Palm, Dictyosperma did NOT live up to it's name down at Fairchilds, many of these blew right down.

[AJQ]

Depends on what you define as wind resistant.

Sabals, palmetto and mexicana have had their fronds shredded and petioles snapped off and generally trashed here by winds, along with Washies, Livistona chinensis and decipeins. The australis seems to do a wee bit better though.

Brahea edulis is nowhere near as wind resistant as documented and these last 2 years my armata has taken a severe hammering, with not one frond left untouched. Phoenix sylvestris never looks good come spring time and seriously considering digging it up and replacing with a Theo. My big Jub always gets trashed by the wind although the smaller one is fine???? Go figure that one out....... My Butias suffer and quite often get petioles snapped off. T. Wagnerianus is probably the best but even that is not bullet proof. I have yet to find a Palm that I can plant out and forget about it wrt the wind :-(

The wind here does far, far more damage than the cold ever does. :-(((

[Phoenikakias]

Depends on what you define as wind resistant.

Sabals, palmetto and mexicana have had their fronds shredded and petioles snapped off and generally trashed here by winds, along with Washies, Livistona chinensis and decipeins. The australis seems to do a wee bit better though.

Brahea edulis is nowhere near as wind resistant as documented and these last 2 years my armata has taken a severe hammering, with not one frond left untouched. Phoenix sylvestris never looks good come spring time and seriously considering digging it up and replacing with a Theo. My big Jub always gets trashed by the wind although the smaller one is fine???? Go figure that one out....... My Butias suffer and quite often get petioles snapped off. T. Wagnerianus is probably the best but even that is not bullet proof. I have yet to find a Palm that I can plant out and forget about it wrt the wind :-(

The wind here does far, far more damage than the cold ever does. :-(((

Mate, you speak the language of truth! Only if you had stronger sun, leaves might be somewhat more resistant, but in the latitude of Norin Iron this is out of question. A palm with softer flexible leaflets but also being cool/cold/moist hardy could make some better alternative. BTW if you wish a trade off for your sylvesteris you can contact me, you know where...

[AJQ]

The most wind resistant Palms I have are the 2 Rhopies

With regards to the P. sylvestris, whenI dig it up it is yours whenever that may be as I am away from home until October, I may get back occasionally but don't know when yet.

[Jimhardy]

For resistance....a Waggie has to be up there...now bending with the wind is another matter....

Coconuts and Sabals have got to be 2 of the champs at that...how many times do we see hurricane

(aftermath)pics with beautiful (seemingly)untouched Sabal and Coconuts....?

Edited May 23, 2014 by Jimhardy

[Matthew92]

A book that covers this subject fairly well is called "Stormscaping". It was written by Pamela Crawford and includes input from boupcoup UF/IFAS extension agents. She assembled the results after our big ole hurricane years of '04 and '05.

 

#1 in Florida is Phoenix roebellenii, even able to withstand Cat 5 Hurricane force winds with grace (assuming some man-made shrapnel doesn't fly in and whack it). # 2 is Sabal palmetto (no surprise there...they are flying debris catchers). After #1 and #2, they didn't give them numerical ratings but other Good or Great palms for hurricane zones: Serenoa repens; Thatch palms (Thrinax/Cocothrinax/Leucothrinax), others in the genus Phoenix, Foxtails, Butia, Adonidia. Palms with low wind tolerance: Queens are just bad, the worst of the palms in their survey and W. robusta are a bit shaky (though she doesn't mention them). Some other palms get beat up but recover (Areca/Dypsis lutescens, for example). Overall, most palms are good and the bad ones are exceptions, at least up to category 4 storms.... In cat 5's lots of stuff fails (like Royals for example) that withstand cat 4 or lower. Of course, if I have to deal with winds 160mph or higher, I'll consider suvival (my survival) as a win. Its hard to imagine a storm with winds at 175mph (270 kph) and gusts over 200 (310 kph)! I hope I never have to endure anything like that. I think I'm digressing, here.

I couldn't read that book through enough! Although there were a lot of typos and such (at one point it says Hurricane Andrew was in 1991!) the pictures and data of how different palms survived is very interesting. A must have for palm growers in FL. 

[Matthew92]

Check out this picture from Andrew. Looks like a lot of queens here. (image found on wunderground)

[Matthew92]

 Even though many conclude queens are "horrible" in hurricanes, I have seen pictures of some that still stood tall and straight after going through the worst of Cat. 4 Hurricane Charley. Andrew was much worse than Charley though.

[pigafetta]

Where i am it gets very windy (cool coastal temperate climate)

Few factors to take in.

Palm height= obviously the taller more exposed palms get more wind and smaller species less.

How they look after a lot of wind= Cocos palms might not take wind that good but even when tattered they don't look too bad, while kings just look terrible.

Easily my palms that look best after wind are Phoneix roebelenii virtually no damage no matter how much wind, while my worst easily Archontophneix sp 

Kentias and Butia also fair good as does Ravenea glacaua (help being smaller)

Personally i find my Trachies don't look to bad after wind.

[sarasota alex]

Patrick Griffith and Larry Noblick published a study in 2008 on the Hurrican tolerance of New World Palms. I'm including a map of mortality percentages following major hurricanes for some of the species.

 

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

On October 15, 2015 at 7:35:54 PM, sarasota alex said:

Patrick Griffith and Larry Noblick published a study in 2008 on the Hurrican tolerance of New World Palms. I'm including a map of mortality percentages following major hurricanes for some of the species.

 

Alex, explain what these numbers mean.  For example, the B. eriospatha is followed by 24-59.  Does that mean 24 of the 59 died?

[SoulofthePlace]

I have a list of wind resistant palms:

Adonidia merrillii
Archontophoenix sp. (fronds can get messed up)
Butia capitata
Butia yatay (probably, in my opinion)
Carpoxylon macrospermum (probably)
Caryota mitis
Coccothrinax argentata
Cocos nucifera
Copernicia sp.
Dracaena draco (non-palms)
Dypsis decaryi
Dypsis lutescens
Howea Kentia belmoreana
Hyophorbe lagenicaulis
Hyophorbe verschaffeltii
Jubaea chilensis and hybrids (most likely)
Latania loddigesii
Livistona chinensis
Phoenix canariensis
Phoenix dactylifera
Phoenix reclinata (by my opinion, but grows very short in a windy site)
Phoenix roebelenii
Phoenix sylvestris
Phoenix theophrastii
Phoenix other species as well (in my opinion)
Ptychosperma elegans
Roystonea elata
Sabal etonia
Sabal palmetto
Thrinax morrisii
Thrinax radiata
Veitchia joannis
Veitchia montgomeriana
Washingtonia (all 3, but get fronds messed up and broken)

Depending whether it is a full hurricane wind, or just strong coastal wind, storms or tornados, side wind, wind "tunnel" sites or updown or downdraft wind, conditions and damage can vary. Looking to add more species to this unfinished list.

 

 

Edited April 28, 2019 by SoulofthePlace

[UK_Palms]

Any of the Phoenix types seem to be the most wind-resistant in my climate - Canariensis, Theophrasti, Dactylifera etc. They can get battered by high winds and still look 100%, from what I have seen.

The least wind resistant, from what I have noticed, appears to be Washingtonia. Smaller specimens are much more rigid and robust & have little trouble in strong winds, but the fronds on my larger specimen get ripped to bits in the wind and look quite tatty pretty quickly. Trachycarpus Fortunei is another one that is notorious for looking tatty in exposed locations that get a lot of wind, but I find the Washingtonia looks faaaaaar worse than any of my Fortunei's when exposed to high winds. Even moderate wind seems to tear the Washingtonia fronds at the top of petiole near the costa. And once that tears, the frond kind of collapses and deteriorates. I don't know if anyone else has this issue?

[Pal Meir]

On 8/17/2016 at 2:44 PM, Keith in SoJax said:

Alex, explain what these numbers mean.  For example, the B. eriospatha is followed by 24-59.  Does that mean 24 of the 59 died?

FIG. 1. Provenance of specimens studied relative to the occurrence of cyclones. Numbers after each taxon are the percentage mortality of the taxon following Hurricane Wilma in 2005 (calculated from Table 1). Taxa from south of 108N latitude (see Table 2) had mean observed percentage mortality over ten times greater than those northward.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23139926_Cyclone_Tolerance_in_New_World_Arecaceae_Biogeographic_Variation_and_Abiotic_Natural_Selection

[Reeverse]

On 4/6/2014 at 5:00 AM, Mike in Nelson said:

 

Really? I would pick Queens as one of the better ones. Probably not hurricane resistant but certainly one of the more wind tolerant in my experience.

Here in Florida during the hurricanes they either topple from being weak rooted or the heads of them blow out. They are terrible in sustained high winds.