Family: Arecaceae

Peach palm is an elegant clumping palm growing up to 100 feet. Cultivated for 1,000’s of years, the peach palm is associated with human settlements. Old groves are often found growing near ancient villages in its native land of South and Central America. Peach palm fruit is not sweet and tastes nothing like a peach. The savory fruit is eaten boiled and peeled with salt, beef, or mayonnaise on top. Some say the taste resembles tomato soup or corn or sweet potatoes.

Peach palm has a slender trunk and a feathery crown of fronds. Often growing with multiple stems, the peach palm produces new suckers throughout the year. Many varieties are armed with circular rings of sharp thorns from the base to the crown. Fronds are pinnate, dark green on top, light green underneath. The fruit is a drupe. Hanging in clusters of 50 to 300, fruit starts green, turning orange, and finally turning scarlet red when ripe. Trees produce 250 to 500 fruits a year. Some varieties have seedless fruits. There is a lot of variation in size, shape, color, and form with peach palms.

Cultivated in Hawaii since the early 1990s, the peach palm is a well-behaved tree: no reports of invasiveness. They thrive with well-drained moist soil. Weed several times a year, and fruit will be produced within 6 to 8 years. The productive life can be 75 years. Propagate by suckers or seed. Seeds need a few hours of shade drying before germinating. They will sprout in 3 months. Young trees need protection from ants. Planting and spacing depend on the intended harvest.

For fruit production, the recommended spacing is 10 feet apart. Harvest the suckers every few years while keeping two adult stems at a time. For heart of palm production, plant 5 to 10 feet apart. Terminal buds can be harvested every 2 ½ years to 3 years. Managed correctly, heart of palm can be harvested every year.

A beneficial plant, the whole palm, is used from the roots to the fronds. The roots will produce suckers (new trees) throughout the year. Spines are used for tattooing. Fiber can be obtained from the bark and made into paper. The tree can be tapped for sap to brew a fermented beverage. Oil is expressed from the seeds. Seeds are ground into flour for baking and flavoring. The fruit is edible. The apical bud (the heart of palm) is eaten as a vegetable. The wood is elastic yet hard. It makes an excellent veneer or house siding when polished well. Trunks are halved and hollowed out to create a water trough. The fronds make a superb thatch. A green dye can be made from the fronds. Fruit waste (skins) is fed to animals.

Plant Uses:

• Edible
• Medicinal
• Ornamental
• Privacy / screening
• Specimen

Plant Dangers:

• Thorns or spines

High Risk Traits:

• Thrives in tropical climates
  
• Naturalized (area of origin uncertain)
  
• Spiny (although spineless forms exist)
  
• Self-compatible
  
• Can spread by seeds and vegetatively by suckering
  
• Seeds dispersed by people, water, birds and other animals
  
• Able to resprout

Low Risk Traits:

• Domesticated tree with spineless, larger-fruited, and few-seeded forms in cultivation
  
• Despite naturalization, no reports of negative impacts to agriculture or the environment
  
• Edible fruit
  
• Requires full sun
  
• Seeds are recalcitrant, and will not form a persistent seed bank