Jubaea chilensis - Chilean Wine Palm

Jubaea chilensis, also called Chilean Wine Palm, is a large relatively hardy palm tree, originating from the dry regions of Chile, exposed to a climate comparable to the Mediterranean climate. It immediately imposes itself with its majestic verticality, offering a view of a massive trunk, widened in the middle, covered with a grey and horizontally wrinkled bark, in the form of a column topped with a very dense crown of slightly bluish-green leaves. Its growth is very slow, particularly during its young years, and it will not flower until it is 40 to 50 years old. Now rare in its original habitat due to mankind's greed, this palm tree may find a refuge in your garden. It is not demanding in terms of the nature of the soil: it is resistant to drought and hardy down to -15 °C (5 °F)!

A slow-growing shrubby plant from the Arecaceae family, highly appreciated as an ornamental plant, Jubaea chilensis is native to Chile, at the foot of the Andes, mainly from Valparaiso, Aconcagua and O'Higgins, where it grows up to 1500 m (4921 ft) in altitude. It thrives in dry habitats, on sandy or rocky soil, enduring hot and dry summers for 3 to 4 months, as well as rain and rather cold temperatures in winter. It was in 1858, at the botanical garden of the Thuret villa in France, that the Jubaea was first planted in Europe. The plant, described as unicaule, produces only one 'trunk' called a stipe, which can reach over 12 m (39 ft) in height and 1 m (3 ft 4 in) in diameter at an advanced age, carrying a dense crown of leaves, 4 m (13 ft) wide. The stipe is grey in colour, slightly flared at the base, and narrowed under the crown. Its epidermis is smooth and horizontally cracked, and marked with horizontal diamond shapes that are rounded at the corners. Towards the top of the stipe, this pattern flattens and increasingly stretches out. All these patterns are actually the scars left by dead leaves over the course of the plant's growth. The crown can count up to 40 pinnate leaves 3 to 5 m (9 ft 10 in to 16 ft 5 in) long, which are rigid, coriaceous, erect in the centre, and trailing on the periphery. It hides in its centre the only meristem responsible for the growth of this palm tree. The rate of growth is directly related to the more or less favourable conditions of the growing medium: faster in deep, rich and fresh soil; slower otherwise. Flowering does not occur until after 40 to 50 years. Large inflorescences, over 1 m (3 ft 4 in), covered in brown velvet, appear between the lower leaves. They are composed of numerous golden-yellow unisexual flowers: male or female. After fertilisation, they give birth to fruits similar to small coconuts 3 cm (1.2 in) in diameter, whose fibrous orange or bright yellow pulp surrounds an oleaginous seed with edible white flesh that is rich in fatty acids. This nut is known as "coquito" in Chile. Jubaea chilensis is an endangered species in its country of origin where its juice is exploited to make palm honey. It is the harvesting technique that is the sole cause of its disappearance: to let the juice flow, the top of the stipe containing the meristem is cut off, signing the death warrant, as it were, for this plant by effectively beheading it. 

This palm tree, along with Trachycarpus fortunei, is one of the easiest to acclimatise in many regions. In the open ground, it will be placed alone, not far from a swimming pool for example, in the company of banana trees, or yuccas, in an exotic-inspired decor. But this very drought-resistant species will express all its potential in a Mediterranean-style garden, accompanied by Cycas, or Duprez's Cypress (Cupressus dupreziana), a true Saharan relic almost extinct in its native Tassili des Ajjers. Somewhat difficult to combine with other species because of its strong personality, it can nevertheless be planted in groups of three and surrounded by a carpet of thymes, a bed of California Poppies, or a bank of Felicia. A contemporary garden will place it above a sea of white pebbles.  

Jubaea chilensis secretes a sap rich in sugars that was once distilled to produce spirits among the Mapuche Indians, called palm wine by the settlers. It was also transformed into "palm honey" after heating. 

The Jubaea genus, which consists of a single species, Jubaea chilensis, is dedicated to King Juba II (50-24 BC), of the ancient African kingdom of Numidia (modern-day Mauritania), who was a botany enthusiast.