20 Interesting Facts about Buccaneer Palm Trees

The Buccaneer Palm Tree has a scientific name of Pseudophoenix sargentii but it is also commonly known as the Florida cherry palm tree, Sargent’s Cherry Palm, and Palma de Guinea. This tree is part of the Arecaceae family. It is a beautiful tree that you can find throughout Florida and other areas in the United States. Read on for more interesting facts about this amazing palm tree.

1. Native Medium

This medium-sized palm tree is native to the northern Caribbean, eastern Mexico, Belize, Cuba, and the extreme southeast Atlantic portion of Florida.

2. Collector’s Item

The Buccaneer Palm Tree is considered to be a collector’s palm tree. This means it is very popular for people who live in the right climate to have it as part of their landscaping or on their lawn.

3. The Right Climate

This smaller palm tree thrives and flourishes in warm, tropical-style weather. It’s not cold hardy, which means it can only tolerate temperatures down as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit. It grows very well in USDA zones ten to 11 which encompass 30-degree Fahrenheit weather to above 40 degrees Fahrenheit temperatures.

4. Cleans Itself

This amazing small palm tree not only loves warm weather, but it has a self-cleaning truck. It also should be kept in a warm area, either closer to the house or business in the landscaping or even in a more protected area, such as a pool cage.

5. Slower Grower

The Buccaneer palm tree is very easy to grow which is the reason it is so popular with people who want them in their yards or in their smaller gardens. It is very slow growing and can be grown outdoors on your patio, deck, or porch in a container or even grown indoors then replanted where you want it later.

6. Noted for Its Extremes

Since the buccaneer palm tree is a native tree of the Caribbean as well as the Florida Keys and South Florida, it is noted to be tolerable to vary extreme temperatures. It is very drought tolerant as well as salt tolerant since it is grown in areas where there is salt in the air from the ocean. Again, it has a slow growth rate that has even been referred to as slow as molasses.

7. Not Too Close to Home

Most of the time, it is recommended that no one should plant a palm tree or any other type of tree too close to your house or other buildings. The leaves and branches that are part of the canopy of a Buccaneer palm tree need to be able to spread out fully and to be able to clear a roof line. This is important to keep in mind that even though the roots of the bucket near the palm tree are not known to grow into drains and cause damage to pipes or concrete, but you still do not want them crowding any building structure. It is okay, however, to plant these trees closer to the house in your landscaping since they are slower-growing trees and sensitive to the cold.

8. Not Too Tall

The buccaneer palm tree will only grow about 10 to 15 feet tall and 10 to 15 feet wide, which is why this tree is good for both indoor and outdoor placement. That is a good characteristic of this tree since it is not very tolerant to cold weather and can be brought in when needed if you have it planted in some sort of planter or container. Since this tree is considered to be endangered, the few that are still existing as part of the natural stands left in Florida, can sometimes reach 25 feet. In your home’s landscaping, the buccaneer palm tree can grow to only about ten to fifteen feet in height.

9. The Appearance of the Buccaneer Palm Tree

The buccaneer palm tree boasts a single trunk that is smooth in texture and gray in color. It is very often ringed with scars from shed fronds and does not sport a crown shaft. The swollen trunks on mature Buccaneer palm trees can vary in shape and the subspecies, saonae, can develop a fuller and heavier trunk than the ones that are part of the sargentii family. The fun fact about this particular tree is that no two of them look alike, since they are each very unique in the way they look and grow.

10. Leaves and Fruits

The canopy that tops this tree boasts dark green pinnate-shaped leaves and they have a feathery look and feel to them and are about 15 feet long. They can range in color from green or light green to a blue-green or completely silver. The stems of the fronds tend to spread out flat while in a fan-shaped pattern, which resembles a tiny blue-green traveler’s palm, especially while the palm is young. During the late summer months, the tree produces small yellow flowers that grow throughout the branches. The flowers are then followed up by berry-like fruits that are green in color originally but turn red when they are ripe. The fruit is in a round shape and only about one-fifth of an inch in diameter.

11. Soil and Fertilizer

The buccaneer palm tree requires soil that is well drained but moderately watered. It really thrives the most when it is grown in sandy soil near the sea or ocean as well as in limestone soils. This tree prefers soils that contain more alkaline and it can even tolerate salt water. It is beneficial to use good quality palm fertilizer in the soil that contains a continuous release formula two times each year during the growing season to help facilitate the propagation of its seeds and to help it grow and thrive.

12. Light it Up

This tree enjoys full sun to partial shade, which is the reason it thrives in tropical climates, like the type of climate in Florida and the climate that the Caribbean, Mexico, and other warm areas have to offer.

13. Not Well-Known

According to the South Florida Plant Guide, the buccaneer palm tree is a striking and stunning tree, yet it is not very well known and is used very infrequently at residents’ homes in their landscaping. It has definitely earned a place in warmer areas of South Florida, though, as the main focal point in coastal gardens and tropical ones also.

14. Ancient History of the Buccaneer Palm Tree

Palm trees in general can be traced all the way back to more than 5,000 years during the Mesopotamian times. It was once used as a source of food, as well as for building houses and other dwellings and for creating construction tools along with keeping people shielded from the hot sun of the desert.

15. A Little Shady

While the buccaneer palm tree can take on a full amount of sun on any given day and is also fine in the partial shade, it actually prefers and thrives when it has some amount of shade. This is especially true when these trees are younger in age. The fronds on this tree can reach anywhere from four to ten feet in length and it has been found that the more shade there is, the longer the fronds will grow.

16. In Danger

The buccaneer palm tree is considered to be very secure while it is growing in the wild, although there is not a lot of data that is in existence about the distribution of this tree throughout the worldwide population nor the abundance of it. In Florida, this tree is considered to be critically endangered.

17. History of the Endangerment

The buccaneer palm tree was once only found on Elliott Key, Long Key, and Sands Key and a very large population of it in Long Key was destroyed in the early part of the 20th century when they were dug up to be sold as ornamental trees. In today’s world, the only natural population that is still living in Florida is on Elliot Key and there are less than 50 of them growing in the wild in that area. According to the International Union of Conservation (IUCN), the buccaneer palm tree is considered to be endangered.

18. Wine From the Palms

Many people can make wine out of pretty much anything including the palm leaves from the Buccaneer palm tree and other palm trees. This is very common in places like Cuba and Mexico and the cherry palm tree that is the book a near palm tree far right into that realm.

19. Caring for a Buccaneer Palm Tree

Although the buccaneer palm tree does create a method of self-cleaning as it grows older, it is still good to prune off some of the fronds while it is still young and growing. You do not normally have to add extra elements to the soil if you are planting your buccaneer palm tree in sandier-type soil since it thrives in that environment. While it can take a hit or two from colder temperatures, it is important that if near freezing cold temperatures are predicted as well as frost, you should cover your buccaneer palm tree with a very thick blanket, thick plastic, or even a frost cloth to protect it.

If you are planting several buccaneer palm trees or planting them in a tree nursery-style environment, keep in mind that they should be planted with at least 10 feet between each one of them. They need room to grow and spread out as their branches and leaves grow wider and larger. Also keep this in mind, when you are planting several buccaneer palm trees along your driveway, a wall, or even a sidewalk. You should also be sure to plant your boot camp near palm trees at least three to four feet away from your house and not underneath the eaves of your house or building or near the gutters, since it can cause problems for the tree as well as your house.

A buccaneer palm tree looks beautiful by your entry door, but you should situate it so that when the fronds grow to their full length, they will not be in the way of your sidewalk or doorway. Remember that Buccaneer palm trees are great container palms since they do grow so very slowly. Keep in mind, however, that the longer they are confined to a container, the palm’s fronds will be shorter in length and maybe not as pretty, full, and lush.

20. Feeding the Buccaneer Palm Tree

The Buccaneer palm tree is not that finicky when it comes to nutrition since it is a native that has been known to grow in soil that is of poor quality. This tree, like most palm trees, still thrives when the soil is fertilized. It is best to do this in the spring, summer, or fall times of the year and you should use a granular palm fertilizer since it works best for this type of palm tree.

And there you have it. All of the information you need to know about the gorgeous buccaneer palm tree. It is obviously an interesting tree and you can spot them throughout the southern area of Florida, as well as the Caribbean, Mexico, Cuba, and a few other countries and locations that boast a warm, tropical climate.