Schippia concolor

Schippia concolor is the only species in its genus, a slender fan palm from the limestone forests of Belize that reaches Australian nurseries in small numbers. The habit is fine rather than architectural, a thin trunk marked with close leaf scars carrying a modest crown of stiff palmate leaves, deep green above and noticeably paler beneath, so the crown shifts between two tones in any breeze. Older plants set small round white fruit. It belongs in tropical and subtropical rainforest gardens and sheltered courtyards, planted as a collector's piece.

One species, one genus

Warmth and humidity are the whole story with this palm. It is a lowland tropical species with no cold tolerance to speak of, which limits it to the wet tropics, far north Queensland and the frost free pockets of the subtropical coast. Give it a settled position with buildings or established planting around it rather than an open bed, because hot dry wind shreds the leaf segments and a damaged leaf stays damaged until it is replaced. Soil should drain freely. Work compost or aged manure through a wide planting area, keep a thick organic mulch over the root zone and off the trunk, and avoid heavy clay that stays sodden after rain. The one real failure mode is cold. A single frost, or a run of cold nights in a southern or inland garden, will collapse the crown, and a collapsed crown does not come back. If your winter minimums are marginal, plant beneath established canopy where the air stays warmer overnight, or grow it in a container that can be moved under cover for the coldest weeks.

Scarce, slight, and not a substitute for anything

Nothing else in this batch does the same job. The variegated Pandanus baptistii is the other tropical feature plant on offer, but it is a bold thing with broad cream striped leaves meant to be read from across a courtyard, where Schippia is fine textured, understated and worth a position you walk past closely. If you want a layered rainforest effect in a climate with real winters, Cyathea cooperi gives you the canopy and the fine foliage and will shrug off conditions that would finish this palm outright. Take the Schippia if you garden in the humid north and the scarcity is part of what you are buying. Other established specimens are grouped under advanced trees.

Spent leaves and palm feeding

Pruning is limited to spent leaves. Take them off flush with the trunk once they have browned right through, working in the warm months, and leave anything still holding green tissue. Never cut into the crown or remove the spear. Feed in spring and again in mid summer with a controlled release palm fertiliser that carries magnesium and manganese, water it in, then top the mulch up. Patchy yellowing on older leaves is usually the fertiliser running out rather than a disease, and it corrects itself over the following flush of growth. Container grown plants are better fed little and often, because water moves through an open mix quickly and carries nutrients out with it.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 300mm up to 110L, priced from $129.00 to $779.00 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.