Ruffled Fan Palm Licuala peltata var. sumawongii

Where most Licuala split their fans into narrow segments, sumawongii holds a single near-circular blade, pleated like a folded paper fan and glossy enough to throw light back at you. It is a solitary, slow understorey palm from Thailand, building a short trunk under a small number of very large leaves. That is the whole proposition: one plant, a handful of leaves, each one a feature in its own right, which is why it ends up in shaded courtyards, atriums and wide pots.

Keeping a very large leaf in one piece

Give it shade to part shade, moderate watering with regular attention through summer, and soil or mix that stays moist without going sour, with a deep organic mulch on top. It grows slowly, so the plant you buy is close to the plant you will have for some years. Warmth and humidity are the background conditions, which means the humid tropics and subtropics outdoors, and a courtyard, atrium or glasshouse anywhere cooler. The failure mode is letting the root ball dry out. The surface of a large pot can look damp while the centre has gone dry, and the palm answers by browning the margins and the pleat folds right across a blade that will not be replaced for a long time. Check the weight of the pot rather than the surface, water thoroughly so the whole ball wets through, and keep it out of the wind, which tears these blades as readily as it tears any other undivided Licuala leaf.

Sumawongii or grandis, and when to pick neither

The obvious comparison is Licuala grandis, which carries a smaller, more heavily corrugated and more matt leaf on a slimmer trunk. Choose grandis where the space is tight or the budget of shelter is limited; choose sumawongii where you want a single dramatic blade at close range and can give it still, humid air. If the position has any real air movement, or you want screening rather than a specimen, neither is the answer, and lady palm is the shade plant to use instead, since it clumps, screens at eye level and shrugs off dry indoor air. The two undivided-leaf palms are worth the trouble only where the shelter is genuine, so settle the position before settling on the species. Larger specimens sit in the advanced tree range.

Minimal cutting, careful feeding

Remove a leaf only once it is fully brown, cutting the stalk back close to the trunk, with gloves on for the toothed stalk edges, and do the job in warm weather. Leave anything with green in it, because a palm carrying this few leaves cannot spare one. Feed with a controlled release palm fertiliser in early spring and again in mid summer, at half the label rate for container plants, and stop as the weather cools. Sponge the blades occasionally indoors to clear dust, keep humidity up around them, and top up the mulch each year rather than digging around the shallow roots.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 250mm up to 90L, priced from $119.00 to $1209.00 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.