Arenga engleri

Formosa sugar palm

The Formosa sugar palm certainly has a sweet name. The flowers exude sweetness with an attractive fragrance that is one of the best amongst palms. You would think that flowers with wonderful scents would produce fruits with wonderful taste, right? This is sometimes the case (as with citrus plants) but although the fruits on this palm do look appealing, they are toxic and should not be eaten or even touched, as they have been known to cause allergic reactions to skin.

Taller specimens of this palm and members of this genus store significant amounts of starch in their trunks, which can be harvested or left to be harvested later in another form: sugary sap, which the plant sends to its inflorescences (flower stalks) before and during a bloom. This sap is used to make sugar and wine.

This palm is quite slow growing and doesn’t get very tall (trunks only up to about 9 ft.) but it is a clumping type with long fronds, so it can eventually take up a good amount of real estate if left to grow as it will. The fronds can be up to eight feet long and since they first emerge from the top of the palm, they also add significantly to the apparent height.

Formosa sugar palm is a relatively cold-hardy palm that can be planted north to Zone 8b. It's not too tolerant of salt or high winds.