A small, spreading, bushy palm with a short, often creeping trunk densely covered with long needles and thin-stalked, deeply divided, glossy green fan-shaped leaves, the undersides of which are covered with silvery scales. Rhapidophyllum originates from the southeastern United States and thrives there in the understory of deciduous forests from Florida to the Carolinas on moist soils. Wild populations are small and, in some areas, endangered. In cultivation and especially in the trade, Rhapidophyllum has become increasingly rare in recent years—and when it is available, it commands very high prices. The needle palm is the most frost-hardy but also a very slow-growing palm species.
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