Vetchia arecina

The Veitchia arecina, also known as the Montgomery Palm, is a very attractive, tall, solitary, pinnate palm with a slender grey trunk growing up to 60 feet high. It has a slender, white crown shaft with black, gray and green speckling. Its long, arching leaves have long green slightly drooping leaflets with serrated tips.

This palm’s inflorescence is stiffly arching, and branched to three or four orders with green fruits that turn red when ripe. Greenish to white male and female flowers are borne on the same inflorescence. These fruits and flowers can be seen in the featured photos taken in W.S. Merwin’s garden.

Veitchia arecina are native to the volcanic archipelago Vanuatu, an Oceanian island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean. They find their home in the moist rainforest, where they are an endangered species (IUCN 2.3). The lost of this species is linked to habitat loss due to human development.

This is one of the easier Veitchias to grow, and is very hardy in tropical environments.

There are 68 of this species of palm growing in the Merwin Palm Collection, ranging from seedling to mature.