This Cocothrinax was labeled as argentea or argentata, but when I posted it in past years I was advised it didn't key to either. I am still waiting for its first flowers. It does have some silver color on the leaf underside but it is modest.

It has been a good grower. I thought it was time to solicit thoughts on a species id again. Here it is...

Tracy, was that a Jungle Music purchase? I have a spitting image from them; argentata if I recall..

I have one too!

I must have a palm from the same source. I bought mine from Jungle Music as well. I've seen your previous posts about it and have wondered if there was any official ID.

Hey! I bought one from Phil as well . Mine was not labeled and when I posted pics here I was told it was C. Barbadensis. Mine is about the same size . It grows slow and steady. Jungle Music had a few Cocothrinax species when I was there about 20 years ago so not sure if mine is the same as yours. Very small when planted and full afternoon sun . The fronds on the one I got don’t stay stiff and tend to relax with age . It has an orange-ish hastula . Harry

Trunk is pretty typical Cocothrinax

The fronds are more relaxed a year or so after opening

Orange colored hastula. I’ve got this one labeled Cocothrinax Barbadensis. I was at one of Jungle Music’s sales many years ago and Phil had some that had no label and were too little to identify . These pics are from when I posted a while back ( couple of years?) . Someone on PT said it was Barbadensis. Since these photos were taken , and seeing others , I started giving it more water and feeding it . I believe mine is a different species than yours.

Hey Harry, it’s a little bit difficult to tell in your picture, but my observation is that barbadensis has a leaf that is not fully circular. Sorry for the less than great picture, but here’s a couple shots I took this morning.

That "Jungle Music argentata" is certainly not argentata. I used to live in a forest of them on Big Pine Key and we had large specimens on our property. C. argentata doesn't have those beautiful, neat, light-colored mummy-wrappings you show here, Tracy, and what fiber argentata does have doesn't extend down that far below the crown; and the leaves have a different form, they have a bit of a wave and the tips droop, it's not one of the "stiff" Coccothrinax. Also, I think you'd never see C. argentata attain the sizes you have here, when grown in coastal SoCal, in any reasonable time-span. It is slow even in a tropical climate.

But these also don't look at all like the C. barbadensis/C. alta I know, which, as Bret notes above, doesn't have a blade fully encircling the hastula (mine here only cover a little over a half-circle). Though it's the species I always expect to see growing near the coast, since it may be the fastest-growing. This is why it's the one you really find in the trade in Florida on any sort of scale (often sold there as C. alta), it's maybe the only profitable one to grow. I have quite a few of them here in Palm Springs and have acquired them both from Phil and from Florida sources...and they match, so I think what Phil has sold (at least recently) as that species, does seem to be accurately labeled.

I remember several decades ago, it seemed the most common one you'd see in SoCal was C. miraguama, and I have a feeling that may be what this is. The mummy-wrappings in particular on your beautiful specimen. I planted a miraguama at my old apartment-building in West Hollywood in the mid-90s (probably bought from Phil), and this looks somewhat similar in my memory, I remember how beautiful the wrappings were...unfortunately that one was removed at some point in the intervening years so I am relying on old memories. Some of the photos of miraguama on Palmpedia really resemble yours, though of course you have to assume that their pictures are accurate as well. But you might want to try to key it out in that direction (and note there are three subspecies with differences in the fibers...see Paul Craft's book on the Palms of Cuba).

Phil has also carried C. montana in the past...I bought a "Coccothrinax sp." from him a year or so ago and spoke to Ricardo at the nursery about it, he said in his recollection they had carried C. montana in the fairly recent past, and I am inclined to believe what I bought there as "sp." may be that one, but it's very stiff, definitely looks different to me from what you're all showing here.

Hopefully someone with some good Cocco-chops from Florida will chime in here with a more authoritative idea. This genus is a really underused one, in my opinion, just the right size for home gardens, especially courtyards, and I wish there wasn't so much confusion with all the species (and that more species were readily available)...also I wish they grew a little faster, but at least there are a couple of them that grow well in a variety of climates. The nice thing is that they're very ornamental from youth, so there's no reason to decide against planting them and enjoying them, at any size.

Yes, I did get it from Phil back in February 2018, and you can read the label below. From my perspective this has been pretty fast growth given that this genus tends to be a smaller palm (compared to Copernecia, Pritchardia, most Brahea and Sabal, which are all fan palms). I should get a copy of Paul Craft's book as a reference as well as a few other palm books. I will definitely check out the Cocothrinax miraguama.

I will have to post my other Cocothrinax from Phil about the same time. My other Cocothrinax specimens came from George Sparkman a couple of years earlier as I recall, but the photo records are my best resource on timing.

My guess would be Coccothrinax argentea.

Understandably it gets confused with C. argentata but it's a distinct species, despite what jungle music's website says. I think the names have been used interchangeably or just carelessly applied by various sources. https://junglemusic.com/2024/02/coccothrinax-argentea-medium-sized-fan-palm-4/

C. argentea is from Hispaniola and has stiffer leaflets than C. barbadensis or C. argentata, but not as rigid as the Cuban species like C. miraguama. The thatching pattern is a tight, fine burlap, again somewhat intermediate between the two extremes of loose fiber to hard textured mesh seen in Coccothrinax.

This species is not well illustrated on palmpedia or by a Google image search, again due to confusion of the name with the more well known Florida species, but I believe it's still one of the of the more common Coccothrinax in cultivation. I recommend inaturalist for in situ photos for comparison

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/364469-Coccothrinax-argentea

Tracy,

I have a two palms that were labeled as C. Argentata and two that were labeled as L. Morrisii - whatever they are, they all look the same, and have all grown very well. These did not come from Jungle Music. I wonder if these are the same as yours? It’s hard to see in those light, though they are quite silver underneath.

Coccothrinax are a splitters dream. So many variants and hybrids to nitpick. Most in the US are, or are hybrids of, barbadensis, miraguama, and to a lesser extent borhidiana, and crinita. When you get out to California, from general sellers especially, it’s going to be the common ones or common hybrids.

Palmpedia can’t identify them correctly, and I’ve got a bunch, from reputable Cuban Palm sellers, and 1/2 of those turned out to be misidentified hybrids. So I approach them like a good lumper, hopelessly, like I approach rarer crotons now…. I lump them into broad categories for the most part. If you like it and it looks great, I’m not sure it matters.

That being said, yours looks very much like my, Miraguama ssp roseocarpa, which looks nothing like Miraguama ssp miraguama.

A couple of years ago….

Now 9+ feet to the tips….

Note the leaf….

Here's mine... Coccothrinax Sp.... Lol

It has somewhat silvery under sides. This is full sun grown.

On 8/7/2026 at 7:09 AM, quaman58 said:

Hey Harry, it’s a little bit difficult to tell in your picture, but my observation is that barbadensis has a leaf that is not fully circular. Sorry for the less than great picture, but here’s a couple shots I took this morning.

Hmm , not sure what I have then . Most of the fronds are full circle , accept when they first open , of course. Here are better(?) pics . I sure would like to know what it is . If it is some sort of hybrid , I may never know then. A couple years ago I thought I had the answer but after some of the posts on this thread it may not be that simple. I went out there and took some pics , but it has been very hot here , like 92 in the shade so didn’t spend much time trying to get super good photos. Harry

The fronds end up circular , to the left is a fronds that opened up a few days ago.

In the center is the new fronds, to the left is one that opened earlier and to the right , one that has been open for a while.

Showing the entire palm

Underside of fronds with sun the orangish center.