How to Identify a Palm: Fan or Feather, and the One That Is Not a Palm

Palms look interchangeable in a shop, get sold under trade names rather than species, and one of the most commonly sold is not a palm and can kill a dog. So it is worth ten minutes.

Question 1: fan or feather?

Every palm frond is one of two shapes, and this splits the family immediately.

Palmate, or fan. Leaflets radiate from a single central point like fingers from a palm, or like a folded fan. Chinese fan palm, European fan palm, lady palm.

Pinnate, or feather. Leaflets run in two rows along a central stalk like a feather. Parlour palm, areca, kentia, date palm, coconut.

Most houseplant palms are feather palms. Fan palms are the minority indoors.

Question 2: how many stems?

Single trunk growing from one point: kentia, majesty, coconut, most date palms.

Clustering, with many thin stems emerging from the soil together: areca, parlour palm, lady palm, bamboo palm.

This is often the fastest way to separate two palms that have similar fronds, because it is visible from across the room.

The common houseplant palms

1. Parlour palm. Small, clustering, soft dark green feather fronds, slow. The most common and the most shade tolerant. Rarely above 1.2m indoors.Chamaedorea elegans
2. Areca palm. Clustering, many stems, arching yellowish-green feather fronds, often with golden stems. Sold as a big floor plant.Dypsis lutescens
3. Kentia palm. Single stemmed, dark green, broad drooping leaflets, elegant and expensive. Tolerates lower light than most.Howea forsteriana
4. Lady palm. Clustering, fan fronds with blunt-tipped segments, very tough and shade tolerant.Rhapis excelsa
5. Majesty palm. Single stemmed, stiff upright feather fronds. Sold cheaply, needs far more light and humidity than a home usually provides, and often fails.Ravenea rivularis
6. Ponytail palm. Not a palm at all. A swollen woody base with long thin strappy leaves. It is an asparagus relative and a succulent. Very drought tolerant, and pet safe.Beaucarnea recurvata

The one that matters: sago palm

Sago palm is not a palm. It is a cycad, an ancient group unrelated to palms, and this is the most important identification in this article.

How to spot it: stiff, hard, sharply pointed leaflets that feel almost plastic, arranged in a formal symmetrical rosette, growing from a squat scaly trunk that looks like a pineapple. It feels rigid where a real palm feels soft.

It is severely toxic to dogs. All parts are poisonous and the seeds are the worst. It causes liver failure, and reported mortality is around 50 percent even with veterinary treatment. Dogs are attracted to it and cases are common in warm US states where it is planted outdoors.

If you have a dog and you own something you think is a palm, confirm that it is one. This is the single highest stakes plant identification a pet owner can make.

Other palm lookalikes

Dracaena, sold as corn plant or dragon tree, has strappy leaves in tufts on woody canes and is often mistaken for a palm. Toxic to pets.

Yucca has stiff sword-shaped leaves on a woody trunk. Toxic to pets.

Cordyline, the ti plant, similar habit, often coloured. Toxic to pets.

All three are more common indoors than real palms and none of them are palms.

What to photograph

The whole plant showing habit and whether it clusters. One complete frond, flat, so you can see fan versus feather. The base of the plant, showing the trunk or stems. A close shot of leaflet tips and texture, since stiffness and point shape separate cycads from palms.

The good news: true palms are non toxic to cats and dogs. Parlour, areca, kentia, lady and ponytail palms are all safe. It is the impostors, sago most of all, that are not.

Photograph yours and Identium will tell you whether what you have is actually a palm, and whether it is safe to have at floor level.