The Bismarck palm has a stout trunk and massive fan leaves. The leaves are a light blue-gray shot with silver. This Cuban species, which is found in dry savannahs and woodlands, should be grown in well-drained soil. It does best in sunny areas but can tolerate partial shade. Although very slowgrowing and not easy to find, it is a magnificent palm that should be grown more.
Mature plants have massive smooth gray trunks.
Even young plants without developed trunks are desirable for their large fan leaves that make striking patterns of light and shadow. It is slow growing when immature. Its arching leaves and delicate proportions make it a lovely specimen even when young. Sargent's cherry palm of the Florida Keys, the Yucatan, and northern Caribbean islands grows in sand or limestone in areas of little rainfall. Nearly lost in the Keys from habitat loss and poaching for use as landscape plants, the wild populations were restored by a Garden conservation project.