Chamaedorea brachypoda - Fishtail Chamaedorea

great photo Palmate;O))

Palmate:

Thanks! I'll have to post more palm photos soon.

Fern Canyon at the San Diego Zoo has a tremendous amount of palms growing in it. : > )

My personal favorite is C. metalica. Like the fishtail, but solitary, and with a strange silvery sheen to it.

Tugbrethil:

There's several C. metalica growing in Fern Canyon. I have several in my garden also. They are one of the easiest species to grow in shade. I bet it's a difficult one to grow in the desert heat of Phoenix, AZ...as they like more humidity.

No, not that hard. In fact they usually have less trouble than the other fishtail types--less brown tips, etc. They are so painfully slow growing, though, that they aren't a real popular patio plant here.

Tugbrethil:

That's surprising with the excessive heat you receive there.
They're slow in pots, however, in the ground can grow moderately fast with a lot of water. My 10 year old plants are about 4 1/2 feet tall.

That is pretty good growth! The actual heat doesn't seem to bother them much, as long as they are in the shade. They are among the plants I recommend for pretty deep shade, also, along with lady palm, bamboo palm, and aspidistra..

Tugbrethil:

That's great information! I knew C. metallica tolerated the inland San Diego heat well...just didn't know they would tolerate desert heat.

They need deep shade here also...along the coast they can almost be grown in full sun without burning or yellowing.

Which bamboo palm are you referring to: Chamaedorea seifrizii, costaricana, microspadix or another species?

Sorry, Delonix! I forgot that there were so many! We usually use the seifrizii/erumpens complex: the forms with narrow leaflets are sold as C. seifrizii, and the forms with broad leaflets are sold as C. erumpens.

Tugbrethil:

Yes, Chamaedorea is the second largest genus of palms...there's so many. lol!
: > )

I have a C.metalica growing and flowering here- a male. The hard part is finding the Goldilocks spot of lighting. Its more green then when I bought it 4 years ago.

Yes, I know C. metallica grows very well up in the Bay Area...and I do know they like a lot of shade to look their best. I have some which are more than 20 years old.