? Needle Palm Conservation status: Vulnerable
A large Needle Palm in Hardee County, Florida.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae Division: Magnoliophyta Class: Liliopsida Order: Arecales Family: Arecaceae Genus: Rhapidophyllum Species: R. hystrix
Binomial name
Rhapidophyllum hystrix (Pursh) H.Wendl. & Drude

Á The Needle Palm Rhapidophyllum hystrix is the sole member of the genus Rhapidophyllum in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States, from central Florida to Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. A Large Needle Palm in Florida. ... Hardee County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants Adiantum pedatum (a fern... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Orders Base Monocots: Acorus Alismatales Asparagales Dioscoreales Liliales Pandanales Family Petrosaviaceae Commelinids: Arecales Commelinales Poales Zingiberales Family Dasypogonaceae Monocotyledons or monocots are a group of flowering plants usually ranked as a class and once called the Monocotyledoneae. ... Family Arecaceae Arecales is the botanical order which includes only the palm family, Arecaceae. ... Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae or Palmaceae), the Palm Family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order, Arecales. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... Frederick Traugott Pursh (1774 - 11 July 1820) was a German-American botanist. ... Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae or Palmaceae), the Palm Family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order, Arecales. ... State nickname: Sunshine State Other U.S. States Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Governor Jeb Bush (R) Official languages English Area 170,451 km² (22nd)  - Land 137,374 km²  - Water 30,486 km² (17. ... State nickname: Palmetto State Other U.S. States Capital Columbia Largest city Columbia Governor Mark Sanford (R) Official languages English Area 82,965 km² (40th)  - Land 78,051 km²  - Water 4,915 km² (6%) Population (2000)  - Population {{{2000Pop}}} (26th)  - Density 51. ... State nickname: Camellia State, The Heart of Dixie¹, Yellowhammer State Other U.S. States Capital Montgomery Largest city Birmingham Governor Bob Riley (R) Official languages English Area 84,360 mi²/135,765 km² (30th)  - Land 81,664 mi²/131,426 km²  - Water 2,696 mi²/4,338 km² (3. ...

The Needle Palm assumes a shrublike clumping form with several stems growing from a single base, the stems growing very slowly and tightly together, eventually forming a dense base 1-1.2 m tall. The whole plant can reach 2-3 m tall to the top of the erect central leaves. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with the leaves with a long petiole terminating in a rounded fan of 8-16 leaflets; each leaf is up to 2 m long, with the leaflets up to 60-80 cm long. The flowers are borne in dense, short clusters at the top of the stems; it is usually dioecious with male and female flowers on separate plants. The fruit is a brown drupe about 2 cm long. The Needle Palm gets its name from the numerous sharp needle-like spines produced on its stem between the leaves; these are 10-25 cm long and protect the stem growing point from browsing animals. This is a list of all the genera in the botanical family Arecaceae, the palm tree family, arranged by tribes within the family. ... In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. ... Wildflowers A flower is the reproductive organ of those plants classified as angiosperms (flowering plants; Division Magnoliophyta). ... Plant sexuality deals with the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. ... Fruit stall in Barcelona, Spain. ... The peach is a typical drupe (stone fruit) In botany, a drupe is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp or skin and mesocarp or flesh) surrounds a shell (the pit or stone) of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. ...

Cultivation and uses

A young Needle Palm in central New Jersey.

The Needle Palm is very popular among palm enthusiasts in cold climates for its extraordinary ability to tolerate cold. Some reports have claimed survival of temperatures as low as -29ºC, although more realistic estimates are approximately -15° to -21ºC. A large, well-established specimen has been growing without protection at the United States National Arboretum in Washington, D. C. since the 1960s. However, unlike the related Trachycarpus species, the Needle Palm does not tolerate cool, damp summer weather. A small needle palm in Central New Jersey. ... A small needle palm in Central New Jersey. ... State nickname: The Garden State Other U.S. States Capital Trenton Largest city Newark Governor Richard Codey (D) Official languages None defined Area 22,608 km² (47th)  - Land 19,231 km²  - Water 3,378 km² (14. ... The United States National Arboretum is an arboretum in Washington D.C., owned by the United States Department of Agriculture. ... ... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ... Species T. fortunei (?) Trachycarpus is a genus of six to eight species of palms native to Asia, from the Himalaya east to eastern China. ...

The Needle Palm is considered to be commercially exploited and therefore threatened. When purchasing this palm, it is wise to purchase it only from a reputable dealer, as some unscrupulous dealers harvest them directly from the wild. Threatened species refers to animal and plant species under a serious, but perhaps not imminent, threat of extinction. ...

External links

• Photos of wild and cultivated specimens
• Floridata: Needle Palm