Beaucarnea recurvata

Plant Characteristics

Cultivation

Water:	◍	dry
Features:	✓	houseplant
Minimum Temp:	☃	10°C50 °F <br />283.15 K <br />509.67 °R <br />

Scientific Names

Ruscaceae >

Beaucarnea >

recurvata >

Lem. >

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Beaucarnea recurvata (often called the ponytail palm in English, even though it is not a true palm) is a species of Beaucarnea often grown as a houseplant in temperate latitudes. Successful cultivation requires winter minimum temperatures of above 10°C, rising to around 30°C in summer. The ponytail palm is native to the states of Tamaulipas, Veracruz, and San Luis Potosí in Mexico.

Read about Beaucarnea recurvata in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Beaucarnea recurvata, Lem. (B. tuberculata, Roezl, Nolina recurvata, Hemsl. N. tuberculata, Hort. Pinceneclitia tuberculata, Lem.). Becoming 30 ft. high, slender- branched above, swollen at base: Lvs. green, thin, smooth-edged, recurving, ¾ in. x 3-6 ft.: infl. nearly sessile; fls. Ain. long: fr. unknown. S. E. Mex.—Tender in Cent. Fla. The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

Beaucarnea recurvata needs full sun to light shade, with a well drained soil mix. A soil mix consisting of 2 parts loam to 1 part peat moss to 2 parts sand has been used successfully. To this mix, small gravel may be added to ensure good drainage. In a container, plants are very slow growing and very drought tolerant. Plants can be watered every three weeks during the growing season and fertilized once during this period. During the winter months, the plants should be watered only enough to keep the foliage from wilting (this usually equates to 1 dose of water during the winter). Over-watering is the single most frequent cause of failure when growing Beaucarnea. The ponytail palm is a very slow growing tree.

Propagation

If you break off one of the branch "crowns", new growth will appear in about a month.

Gallery

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  Regrowth after a crown breakage on a small ponytial palm in Homestead, Fl.

• IMG 1349.jpg

  Small Ponytail Palm in Homestead, Florida.

• IMG 2135.jpg

  A Ponytail Palm growing outside of the Tusker House Restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom park.

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  Monte (Funchal)

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  dito

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  photo 2

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  photo 3

References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Beaucarnea recurvata. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Beaucarnea recurvata QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)