Dypsis ampasindavae

A solitary feather palm from the Ampasindava peninsula in northwest Madagascar, this is one of the Dypsis that rarely reaches general nursery benches and mostly ends up with collectors and tropical garden designers. It builds a clean ringed trunk topped by a crownshaft and a crown of large arching pinnate fronds, noticeably heavier and broader in the leaflet than the golden cane palms most people associate with the genus. Single trunked and substantial, it is used as a feature palm rather than a screening one.

Warm, humid and deeply watered

Treat it as a warm climate plant: frost free, humid and sheltered from drying wind, which puts it in coastal Queensland, the warm parts of New South Wales, and protected courtyard microclimates further south. Light runs from part shade to full sun, and young palms take the shaded end and move happily into open positions as they gain trunk, which suits a spot that starts under existing canopy and opens up later. Water is moderate on soil with real organic matter through it and free drainage below. Growth is moderate. The failure mode is shallow watering. A recently planted palm, and any palm in a large container, dies from a dry core while the surface still reads as damp; the root ball it arrived with sheds water and the surrounding soil takes it instead. Water long and deep, less often, directly over the original root ball for the first two summers, and check with a probe or your hand at depth rather than trusting the top few centimetres.

Which Madagascan feather palm

Against Dypsis prestoniana, this is the lighter framed of the two solitary species here; prestoniana runs to a thicker trunk and a heavier crown with reddish tones through the new leaf, and needs correspondingly more room. Dypsis plumosa takes the texture in the other direction entirely, with fine plumose leaflets and a cloudy crown. Take ampasindavae for broad leaflets and a clean single trunk at a scale that still fits a domestic garden bed. Availability is the other half of the decision. Palms like this move through in small numbers, so if a bed needs three matched plants it is worth buying them together at the same size rather than expecting to find a match in a year or two.

Leave the old fronds until they are done

Do not strip fronds for tidiness. Leave each one until it is fully brown, because cutting green fronds pulls reserves out of the palm and slows the trunk, and a palm trimmed back to a plume takes years to look right again. Cut at the stalk base in the warm months. Feed through spring and summer with a palm fertiliser carrying magnesium and potassium, which are the two elements these palms run short of on sandy soils. Keep a deep mulch over the root zone, clear of the trunk, and hose the crown down after dusty weather. See the rest of the range in palm trees.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 2 sizes, from 300mm up to 400mm, priced from $139.00 to $399.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. Every size here is established stock rather than a starter plant, so this line is intended for immediate effect rather than for growing on. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to when to plant in Australia.