Best heat, drought (and cold) tolerant palm

[Swolte]

As we're going through another year of unprecedented heat and drought events here in Texas and elsewhere, I worry such events will become more frequent and will also have to become a consideration for planting palms. What palms could tolerate these conditions? I am mostly interested in those who don't support plants with supplemental water, or at least not much. 

Here's my impression thus far (the short version) after having gone through the 2022 drought (3 months of 100+ max temps with no rain) and being at the tail end (hopefully) of another record-breaking furnace-like summer in 2023. Note that I have no irrigation system and (also given the poor quality of water here in College Station) do minimum to no levels of watering (in 2022, I basically did no watering). Yes, I love Yucca's and started collecting some hardy cacti too...
😎 

In general, I am quite pleased with all palms in general. Compared to many plants marketed as 'drought tolerant', most palms remain green and can actually handle surprising levels of neglect under hellish conditions. Note that we literally have stands of red cedar dying in the forest a few feet from my yard! In fact, given good spring rains, all my palms are fine for 2 months without a drop of water under record breaking heat (note, currently we have nighttime LOWS in the 80s...). 

However, things do quickly get dicey after that. After 2 months, here's what I see roughly organized by genus (please ask specifics if you're interested in specific palms or anything else I may have forgotten):

DECLINE (Significant browning and spotting, loss of petiole tension, no growth)
Windmills 
Trithrinax
Needle 

STAGNANT (Absence of growth. Plants likely entered dormancy. Some browning on old leaves. Basically just like in winter) 
Pindo
Washies
Sabal
Livistona
Date Palms

GROWTH (some evidence of new growth, often slow)
Brahea
Pindo Hybrids (mules or with Jubaea) 

[Tom in Tucson]

Without any doubt, most Brahea species will be your best bet. Their downside is speed.

Hi 106˚, Lo 80˚ 1/3" rain this evening so far

[Swolte]

Here's my Brahea looking fine and the Windmill is clearly suffering. Both barely receive water. The Brahea is in full sun.   

[Allen]

29 minutes ago, Swolte said:

Here's my Brahea looking fine and the Windmill is clearly suffering. Both barely receive water. The Brahea is in full sun.   

Yes those Trachy like water.  And it maybe has root competition from the trees too.

[MarcusH]

I have one Robusta,  two Filibusta and two Queens planted in the ground.  I can tell my Filibusta obviously slowed down growing by a lot even with regular watering ( 2 to 3 times a week ) . The heat is brutal , barely any clouds , no rain for many weeks , everything is drying up quickly here in San Antonio.  The vegetation goes dormant . My Robusta doesn't mind the heat it still grows but all other palms slowed down growing.  Once we're in the mid 90s I expect them to speed up growth for a while.  

[MarcusH]

38 minutes ago, Swolte said:

Here's my Brahea looking fine and the Windmill is clearly suffering. Both barely receive water. The Brahea is in full sun.   

Windmills don't like the extreme heat in Texas . I see some in our neighborhood and they don't look healthy at all. 

[SeanK]

I'd aim for Brahea armata and Phoenix dactylifera. Maybe a road trip to SoCA to buy B/R palms.

[Arecaceus]

Phoenix theophrastii, all Braheas from dry regions so no green form Brahea dulcis for example. But even though you exclude Sabals. Sabal uresana is a good candidate. They grow much faster with water but they are extremely drought tolerant and seem to be thriving in excessive heat. Another one would be Medemia argun, but Idk how cold hardy they really are and how they would cope with your winters. If you like Trachies you could try T. princeps. They are the drought tolerant cousin of fortunei. A Acrocomia aculeata with the right provenance.

[Swolte]

4 hours ago, Hortulanus said:

Phoenix theophrastii, all Braheas from dry regions so no green form Brahea dulcis for example. But even though you exclude Sabals. Sabal uresana is a good candidate. They grow much faster with water but they are extremely drought tolerant and seem to be thriving in excessive heat. Another one would be Medemia argun, but Idk how cold hardy they really are and how they would cope with your winters. If you like Trachies you could try T. princeps. They are the drought tolerant cousin of fortunei. A Acrocomia aculeata with the right provenance.

My Sabal Urusana are sourced from specimens from the Sonora desert. They do fine. I just don't get any growth on it. Its actually interesting to look up current temperatures in the SDesert as they are almost identical to what we've been experiencing here in Central Texas for months now. 🤨And yes, there is quite some variability in heat/drought tolerance within the Sabal genus. My S. Miamensis looks way worse than my S. Urusana. I'll show some pics tomorrow!  

I can't grow Medemia and Acrocomia (gets too cold here in winter). My princeps died (transplant/shipment issue) so I need to find a replacement (please PM me if you know a good source)

Edited August 12, 2023 by Swolte

[Matt N- Dallas]

Brahea armata, B. decumbens, B. moorei and Nannhorops R. have been bulletproof for me in Dallas and San Marcos, TX.  They all survived: winter & summer of 2011, the Feb of ‘21 cold blast and this summer with ease.  B. dulcis, B. Clara, B. auculeata, B. berlandieri, B. nuri, & Trithrinax campestris have been survivors in San Marcos.  

[Manalto]

I'm keeping an eye on this thread because before I lived here (Mobile) I saw the rainfall reported as 70" per year but didn't consider that it's not evenly distributed and we too can experience extended periods of drought and 100-degree days with nighttime lows in the 80s. In fact, it's happening now. The upper Gulf Coast's humidity and higher rainfall (than your 40") is where the comparisons to our 8B climates diverge, but I do have one addition to the other suggestions: the mule palm. I've heard the cold and drought tolerance of the butia is present in the mule but don't have sufficient experience to confirm. I do know my mule had about 10% damage from last year's Christmas freeze and none of the many butias I saw did, which undermines my confidence in the drought-tolerance claims. However, in our current 100/80° drought, my mule is blooming and putting out new growth.

ETA: Butia species?

Edited August 13, 2023 by Manalto

[Gallop]

Like Matt mentioned B decumbens and B moorei are bullet proof. Both are excellent growers for me In Ocean Springs Ms. 

[Swolte]

Here some images of my highland S. Urusana which I got from TCHP at the time. Received no water. The pics don't do it justice (maybe I can get another one with more sun on it later) but it is looking better than my S. Miamensis (many leaves were brown and I cut them last week). The latter is also getting a lot more shade. I am probably going to water this one soon. I also have another Urusana (from JFGardens - silver) in full sun/exposure that is very young and it is actively putting out leaves. I do actively cuddle that one. 

Awesome pic, @Gallop! Both of mine are doing OK but don't look nearly as good as yours!

Edited August 13, 2023 by Swolte

[Gallop]

7 minutes ago, Swolte said:

Here some images of my highland S. Urusana which I got from TCHP at the time. Received no water. The pics don't do it justice (maybe I can get another one with more sun on it later) but it is looking better than my S. Miamensis (many leaves were brown and I cut them last week). The latter is also getting a lot more shade. I am probably going to water this one soon. I also have another Urusana (from JFGardens - silver) in full sun/exposure that is very young and it is actively putting out leaves. I do actively cuddle that one. 

Awesome pic, @Gallop! Both of mine are doing OK but don't look nearly as good as yours!

Just ignore them for a few years and they’ll suprise you. It took about 4yrs for mine to start looking really nice.

[Swolte]

A few more pics and comment regarding drought tolerance. 

Forgot to mention in the top post but the medi's are doing good (first pic). At this stage, having received minimal supplemental water, there is no growth and their petioles start to become saggy.  They are a nice clump of green to look at (can't say that from most other landscape plants).

 

The second pic shows the butia x jubaea hybrid (twice crossed with butia, I believe. Patric wasn't sure whether this was Yatay). Simply doing remarkable and comparable to Brahea. ZERO water for almost three months now and still showing some slow growth. Very impressive. What a monster.

 

The last pic is my Filifera. Some nice green but no growth and some of the outer leaves are slowly browning. Its doing worse than my Filibusta. Still, amazingly green. I started to water this one today.  

Edited August 14, 2023 by Swolte

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

@Swolte your BxJ looks great 🤙🏼how much sun does it get ?

T J 

[Swolte]

10 hours ago, OC2Texaspalmlvr said:

@Swolte your BxJ looks great 🤙🏼how much sun does it get ?

Thanks! Credit to the palm cause I've neglected it since planting. Its in dappled shade for most of the day under a deciduous post oak. Very tough. Had minimal cold damage during any of the crazy cold events we've had the past few winters. 

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

49 minutes ago, Swolte said:

Thanks! Credit to the palm

Well if managed to survive Palmageddon and the droughts these last 2 summer. It's one tough palm and I like its chances !!!

T J