Jubaea Chilensis - The Chilean Wine Palm - is a beautiful, very large, very slow growing palm. It’s original growing area is… wait for it… the mountains of Chile. It gets its name from it’s sweet sap, which can be fermented and distilled into an alcoholic drink. However, because it grows so slowly, overharvesting has wiped out much of this beautiful tree in Chile. It’s starting to make a resurgence, but it’s not as widespread as it used to be. They tend to grow well in coastal CA, but because they grow so slowly, they’re very expensive; I’ve seen some prices that are about $1000/trunk-foot. Whoa.
Why, you may ask, am I posting about Chilean Wine Palms? Well, at a wedding last October in Newport Beach, CA, Tom and I saw one for the first time. The hotel also had several Nikau palms, which we also hadn’t seen before. A few days later, we went to Mission Bay Park in San Diego and harvested some seeds from both types of trees.
And yesterday, a Valentine’s gift arrived for me in the mail - a Chilean Wine Palm kit! It included a seed that was just beginning to sprout, along with all the goods needed to try and get it going.
Hello.
Nice picture.
Can anyone tell me where I can get Chilean wine palm seeds?
Hey Douglas,
If you’re in an area (like San Francisco or San Diego) where some of the parks have large Chilean Wine Palms, then just keep your eye on them and wait for the seeds to drop. Otherwise, just google them - there’s quite a few places that offer rare palm seeds.
-Blake