Chamaedorea Costaricana Bamboo Palm

Chamaedorea Costaricana Bamboo Palm

Chamaedorea Costaricana bamboo palm is a moderate sized palm, having thin, feathery  and dense clusters of leaves. It can be grown as a house plant.

Chamaedorea costaricana is a popular palm plant. It is also known as Bamboo palm and Costa Rican Parlor Palm. It originates from Central and South America. They can be easily distinguish by its thin green trunk and close resemblance with a bamboo stalk. The plant grows in colonies with short horizontal stem forming a dense clumps that reaches up to 6 m high and 2-6 cm wide.

• • Leaves 

The leaves are 4-6 in number, pinnate, 1-2 m in length. Each leaves consists of 20-26 pinnae on each side which are slightly sigmoid or falcate in shape. The leaf rachis is up to 100-120 cm long while the petiole is 35 cm long.

• • Inflorescence

The flowers are borne erect on infrafoliar inflorescence. The staminated inflorescences are 20-30 cm long, green to yellow in colour, each flower is 2-4 mm in length and 2-3 mm in width while the pistillate inflorescences are 20-35 cm long, pale yellow in colour, each flower is 3-4 mm in length and 2-3 mm in width.

• • Fruits

Fruits are globose in shape, 7-10 mm in diameter and green when unripe while turns black to black-purple when fully ripen. The fruits are not edible because they contain oxalates which upset stomach.

Landscaping Ideas For Chamaedorea Costaricana

Chamaedorea costaricana can be grown both indoors and outdoors.

• • Indoor: It can be good choice to plant indoors and makes an excellent potted ornamentation in houses. It grows well in sheltered spots in large containers.
  • Outdoors: It is a slow growing palm and has a supreme importance among gardeners as it does well as a border plant when grown outdoors. It spread quickly creating a tropical look and making new stems constantly.

How to propagate Chamaedorea costaricana

Chamaedorea costaricana can produces seeds irregularly which germinates over a duration of 6 months when planted. The seeds are clean thoroughly and then they are sown in well-drained & sandy soil. The sown seeds should covered with thinly layer sand or grit soil. The optimum temperature for the germination of seeds should be 20-25˚C.  The culture should be keep moist as it needs moisture. The seedlings will germinate within 4 to 6 months although some seeds take quite longer time for its germination. When the seedlings become enough to handle, they should transfer to large containers.

How to take care of Chamaedorea costaricana

• • Chamaedorea costaricana can grow at higher elevations in habitat and tolerate colder weather.
  • The specie needs moist but well drained soil and shade or filtered light.
  • The plant is mostly occurs in humid forests but it can also tolerate full sun.
  • It required shade in hot seasons.
  • In indoors, it will grow well under low light and low humidity.
  • It has low tolerance for salt and quite susceptible to mites.
  • The pant may require slow release liquid fertilizer once a month.
  • Showering the palm with lukewarm water helps to removes excessive fertilizer salt and common pests like mites and scales.
  • It will look messy if remained untrimmed for a long time, so trimming should be done after every few years.