BOTANICAL NAME: Butia capitata
COMMON NAME: Jelly palm -or-
Pindo palm
COUNTRY of ORIGIN: Brazil, Uruguay, and portions of Argentina
COLD HARDINESS: Jelly palms are probably the most cold hardy of all the pinnate (or feather shaped) palms. Leaf damage will begin to occur at around 15 degrees (F). Lower leaf stalks will begin to outright die at about 10 degrees.
There is much information out there on Jellys because they have been planted so widely and for so long in the southern United States. Many specimens have fully recovered from 0 degrees and even lower with winter protection, while others in the same general vicinity met their doom.
As with all palms, there is some variance on cold hardiness between individual plants, so we collect seeds from mature specimens right here in the Piedmont on the zone 7b & 8a line. It is widely believed that the hardiest trees produce the hardiest offspring.
Barring a catastrophic freeze, Jelly palms are fully adaptable throughout USDA zones 8 and higher and many parts of zone 7b with proper winter care.
