Butia eriospatha

This palm is native to areas of Southern Brazil at elevations of mostly between 850m and 1200m above sea level.
This is the coldest area of Brazil, frost occurs every winter , and dampness is common as it rains most days. Even in summer temperatures can often be similar to those seen in Northern Europe. Aside from the palms, the landscape is very reminiscent of Englands rolling green hills, and many of the plants growing in english gardens can be seen wild in the hedgerows.
It is a mystery to me why this palm is not the most popular choice for Northern European gardens,as it is undoubtedly the best suited Butia species to our cool and wet climate, having a much lower heat requirement than most palms.
The tree is so named because of the brown fuzzy tomentum covering the flower spathe.
Trees can reach 10m high in the wild , and almost certainly more in cultivation. Seed and fruit is round.

The thumbnails pictures on this page are of wild populations growing throughout Santa Caterina and Parana in Southern Brazil. The palm is also very common on high ground in the north of Rio grande Do Sul. Whilst there are literally tens of thousands of trees, and the palm is not immediately threatened, it was of some concern to us to see that there was absolutely no young palms growing due to the grazing of animals.
Last year we had observed that Butia eriospatha was much greener than Butia capitata, this year we saw many beautiful green Butia eriospathas with smooth trunks, but we later saw some populations that were greyer and more similar in appearance to Butia capitata. I suspect that the bluer ones were growing at the lower end of the altitude band and received more sunshine. The flowers also varied from a red colour to a bright yellow.  The old green Butia eriospathas all had smooth trunks ,an indication that the outer layer of trunk had been weathered away.

All in all, the green form of Butia eriospatha is surely the best feather palm for cool climate growers such as in Northern Europe.

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