Hi, my wife is in love with these palm trees and wants to plant as a high-level privacy screen in our backyard above a 8 foot tall fence in a 5’ wide strip between the fence and the pool. We’ve tried identifying them with multiple growers, and each one tells us a different species. Any help would be greatly appreciated. See pictures, both pictured palms and our home are in Miami. Thanks in advance.

Confident it’s a Ptychosperma sp. I’d guess P propinquum.

Hi, thanks for the quick response. Would that be what they commonly call here a Macarthur palm (P. Marcarthurii), I understand the same species? That was my first guess, many growers told us it was a P. Elegans, but I understand those do not cluster. Some even told us it was an Adonidia…

Will P. Propinquum be easy to manage to that they don’t overtake the small strip we have?

Thanks again, I’m clueless about palms, doing the research for the backyard project. Any suggestions for underplantings that will play well with these palms…?

Yes. P macarthurii is now considered a synonym of P propinquum - they are the same. They can be quite vigorous, but not too difficult to manage. You can always chop off stems you don’t want.