parlor palm, good-luck palm
Stems: Solitary, erect (or sometimes leaning) stems, to 2 m tall (occasionally taller), up to 1.5 cm in diameter and ringed with leaf scars. Stems of older, decumbent individuals may form adventitious roots. Leaves: Pinnate, reduplicate, to 1 m long, with linear to lanceolate leaflets evenly spaced along the rachis and spreading in a single plane. Upper and lower leaf surfaces are green, without spines or obvious tomentum; the midrib is prominent and yellowish. Flowers and fruits: Inflorescence erect, to 1 m long, green when in flower, turning orange-red in fruit, branched to two orders with up to 35 branches. Yellow male and female flowers are borne on different plants. The spherical fruits (4-7 mm in diameter) are black when ripe.
Field: Slender, green stem (sometimes rooting at the nodes) with leaves congested at the stem apex. Erect inflorescence branches of female plants orange-red with black fruit.
Other Chamaedorea species, but C. elegans often has adventitious roots at nodes all along the stem.
Native to eastern (primarily) Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize in rainforest understory
Often used as a house plant; cultivated outdoors in Florida and Hawaii; sometimes sold as "Neanthe Bella"
Chamaedorea elegans Mart.
Chamaedorea humilis Mart.
Chamaedorea pulchella Linden
Neanthe elegans (Mart.) O.F.Cook
Nunnezharoa elegans Kuntze
Nunnezharria humilis (Mart.) Kuntze Revis.
Nunnezharria pulchella (Linden ex. Helmsl.) Kuntze