The MidCoast is home to two beautiful native palm species – the Cabbage Palm, Livistona australis and the Bangalow Palm, Archontophoenix cunninghamiana. Unfortunately, exotic palms with a propensity to go feral are still widely favoured in gardens. Fruit is eaten and spread by flying foxes and birds, and these out of place palms grow rapidly in the bush, competing with native plants and sometimes forming thickets.
The most common and notorious offender is the Cocos Palm, Syagrus romanzoffiana – readily identified by its “3D” leaflet arrangement that gives a “feathery” look (or in young seedlings, very elongated solid single leaf fronds). It grows rapidly and fruits prolifically. It is known to cause health problems and injuries to flying foxes, sometimes fatally.
An emerging Palm Pest is the Phoenix Palm (aka Canary Island Date Palm) Phoenix canariensis , whose nasty, spiky presence is always unwelcome on regen sites.
Closely related to our own Bangalow Palm, the Alexandra Palm Archontopheonix alexandrae is a North Queensland native, which gets out of control as a garden escapee. It is distinguished from the Bangalow by the silvery grey underside of its leaflets, and its swollen base.
Mature palms with a woody stem can be killed by simply felling them – removal of the “heart” or growing point is fatal to the plant. Small seedlings can be hand pulled/dug out. In-between palms, which are green at the base but too big to simply dig out, can be cut out at the base by getting under the “heart” with a Hori knife (or an old bush saw you don’t mind bluntening by using at soil level!)
Written by Joël Dunn, August 2025
