Parlour palm
Chamaedorea elegans
- Wants
- Medium
- Tolerates
- Bright indirect down to low
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Pets
- Safe
Why it wants that
It is a genuine understorey palm rather than a canopy one - it spends its whole wild life beneath other trees, which is why it is the palm that survives a Victorian parlour and a modern hallway.
Too little light
Growth stops and the plant produces no new fronds; the existing ones persist, so it looks static rather than sick for a long time.
Too much
Direct sun scorches the fronds, bleaching the leaflets and drying the tips.