Hi everyone! I’m a newer palm grower in Southern California, and I’ve recently fallen in love with Chamaerops humilis. One of my favorite things about the species is how variable it can be.

I recently found a beautiful var. cerifera with small, star-like fronds, as well as a wispy form with a completely different look. It’s been a lot of fun searching for unusual specimens.

I’d love to see what everyone else is growing! If you have an interesting Chamaerops—silver, weeping, long-petioled, compact, or anything else—please share some photos. I’m always on the lookout for unique forms.

I just sent you a PM private message.

They are not always multi stemmed . I planted one over 25 years ago that just grew straight up , single trunk. . It has never produced pups or offshoots. It was a very small plant that I got from a palm nursery near San Diego , California. Harry

These are very nice, trouble free palms. I may be wrong, but it seems like the more water they get the longer the petioles will be, which is a nice look. And for whatever reason, some have very white leaf undersides, some don’t.

32 minutes ago, quaman58 said:

These are very nice, trouble free palms. I may be wrong, but it seems like the more water they get the longer the petioles will be, which is a nice look. And for whatever reason, some have very white leaf undersides, some don’t.

Not entirely true your conclusion. Length of petioles may depend also on genetics. For example the cultivar vulcano has short petioles regardless the water it receives. This here is a specimen in my garden I callit wannabe vulcano. Seed originates from vulcano, but the offspring has longer petioles than in an ideal vulcano and therefore crown spreads more horizontally than remaining upright. Otherwise it is a very appealing dwarf specimen, which receives perhaps the least water quantity here, when it does not rain.

8 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

They are not always multi stemmed . I planted one over 25 years ago that just grew straight up , single trunk. . It has never produced pups or offshoots. It was a very small plant that I got from a palm nursery near San Diego , California. Harry

Amazing! Yes, my whispy leafed chamaerops is also single stem. Do you think single stem chamaerops grow faster than multi trunked chamaerops? I’d assume so.

2 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Not entirely true your conclusion. Length of petioles may depend also on genetics. For example the cultivar vulcano has short petioles regardless the water it receives. This here is a specimen in my garden I callit wannabe vulcano. Seed originates from vulcano, but the offspring has longer petioles than in an ideal vulcano and therefore crown spreads more horizontally than remaining upright. Otherwise it is a very appealing dwarf specimen, which receives perhaps the least water quantity here, when it does not rain.

Love the compact look. The next step for me is to grow seedlings and to observe their variability. Did you germinate many in this batch of seeds?

3 hours ago, quaman58 said:

These are very nice, trouble free palms. I may be wrong, but it seems like the more water they get the longer the petioles will be, which is a nice look. And for whatever reason, some have very white leaf undersides, some don’t.

I always assumed it was genetic variability, but I’m sure environment has a role to play in what traits they display.

I grow platycerium and environment plays a huge factor in how the plant looks. It would be a good experiment to grow to identical chamaerops in different environments. I think the palms would look greener and less glaucous in the shade.

51 minutes ago, Hennyhana said:

Amazing! Yes, my whispy leafed chamaerops is also single stem. Do you think single stem chamaerops grow faster than multi trunked chamaerops? I’d assume so.

This is the only one I have so I have no idea if faster. It is certainly different than the palm I was hoping it would be. I was hoping for more of a curved trunk multi so when the large trunks got too big I could cut them down and have smaller trunks to fill in . As it is it kind of blocks part of our view from the deck , but I just love it so much I have left it alone. Harry

here is one i grew from seed. vulcano ... seed from portugal. awesome you grow platyceriums too! i just started but grow the rarer forms indoors. i started a platycerium discussion on the other tropical plants thread. you have perfect climate to grow so much. i love pasadena but alas couldnt afford it when it was time to purchase a house. lived there when i went to art center.

cheers

tin

1 hour ago, tinman10101 said:

here is one i grew from seed. vulcano ... seed from portugal. awesome you grow platyceriums too! i just started but grow the rarer forms indoors. i started a platycerium discussion on the other tropical plants thread. you have perfect climate to grow so much. i love pasadena but alas couldnt afford it when it was time to purchase a house. lived there when i went to art center.

cheers

tin

I love your Vulcano! How long did it take for it to get to this size? If I can’t find a small one I’ll have to order seeds somewhere…

Im a member of the Los Angeles international fern society- I love all ferns but platycerium are my favorite. I am collecting the old school cultivars, because they are not well documented and I don’t want them to be lost to time. I keep a few of the rarer tropical varieties, but I bring them inside during the winter time. I’m testing p. Elemeria and p. Andinum this winter outdoors… I hear they can take our cold.

I also went to art center! I graduated a few years ago.

@Hennyhana I have a bunch of them too, some just generic. In the front yard is a kinda-solitary tall Cerifera, but it's been shaded by a Sabal Causiarum and losing some of the silver. But it is also growing loooong petioles in the shade, which is interesting too. Also up front is a sorta-Cerifera with a nice silver-blue color. In the backyard I have a single trunk generic green, a Vulcano, and a very clustery generic type. When I am at local nurseries I check their stock for anything odd.

On 7/26/2026 at 8:06 PM, Hennyhana said:

Love the compact look. The next step for me is to grow seedlings and to observe their variability. Did you germinate many in this batch of seeds?

Only four, two fell completely out of parental type, one deviated more than the remaining one and had been eventually removed, although leaf back side was totally white, last variation is called silverback.