Chilean Wine Palm (LA Urban Forest Program)

Chilean Wine Palm

Jubaea chilensis

Summary ⁷

Jubaea chilensis (Chilean Wine Palm) is the sole extant species in the genus Jubaea in the palm family Arecaceae. It is native to southwestern South America, where it is endemic to a small area of central Chile, between 32°S and 35°S in southern Coquimbo, Valparaíso, Santiago, O'Higgins and northern Maule regions. It was long assumed that the extinct palm tree of Easter Island belonged to this genus too, but it is distinct and now placed in...

Description ⁸

Although described somewhat disdainfully by Charles Darwin as a “very ugly tree”, many consider the Chilean wine palm to be one of the most magnificent palms in the world (3) (4). Its immense dark-grey trunk grows to a vast height and often has a swollen region near the base that generally tapers towards the crown (3) (5). The dense crown supports between 40 and 50 green or blue grey, pinnate leaves, which on dying, fall cleanly to the ground rather than persisting on the stem. Borne amongst the leaves, the large inflorescences hang pendulously and comprise separate male and female flowers (3). The spherical fruit are yellow or brown, and, like a coconut, have a nut-like shell with three "eyes" through which the seed germinate (3) (5).