Species
+

Licuala grandis (T.Moore) H.Wendl.

Grosse Licuala Palm, Palas Palm, Ray Palm, Ruffed Fan Palm

Climate known 26 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Licuala grandis, the ruffled fan palm, Vanuatu fan palm, swamp palm or Palas palm, is a species of palm tree in the family Arecaceae, native to Vanuatu, an island nation in the Pacific. It grows in the understory of primary and secondary tropical rain forests. It produces hermaphroditic inflorescences. It bears round green fruit that redden as they ripen, each containing a single seed.

Text from Wikipedia, “Licuala grandis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Licuala

Licuala is a genus of palms, in the tribe Trachycarpeae, commonly found in tropical forests of southern China, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, New Guinea and the western Pacific Ocean islands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Licuala”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(T.Moore) H.Wendl.
Native to
Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu
Wild records
8 in range· 8 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2953mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 363 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Licuala, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2953 mm a year, wettest March at 363 mm, driest July at 120 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Attalea grandis H.Wendl.; Pritchardia grandis (H.Wendl.) W.Bull; Pritchardia grandis T.Moore.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Licuala, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (2172 mm of 2953 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 2.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2953 mm a year, wettest March at 363 mm, driest July at 120 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2953 mm a year at the habitat, 2172 mm of it November to May. Wettest month March at 363 mm, driest July at 120 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2166 mm to 3519 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.4 °C, the absolute minimum 18.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.1 °C in August (across the envelope cells 20.3 °C to 24.3 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 22 °C in Aug to 25 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 2953 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 5 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°29.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 25–40RH 63–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 5 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2827 / 27–2826 / 26–2725 / 25–2725 / 24–2625 / 24–2626 / 25–2627 / 26–2727 / 26–2728 / 27–28
Night °C24 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 23–2624 / 23–2624 / 22–2523 / 21–2522 / 21–2522 / 20–2422 / 21–2423 / 21–2524 / 22–2524 / 23–26
Rain mm341 / 258–389354 / 275–367363 / 283–371333 / 237–389232 / 180–310200 / 132–230120 / 88–181146 / 89–181135 / 91–207180 / 122–250270 / 186–341279 / 180–340
DLI39 / 39–4137 / 36–3835 / 35–3632 / 31–3228 / 27–2825 / 25–2626 / 26–2730 / 30–3135 / 35–3639 / 39–4040 / 39–4140 / 40–42
RH %67 / 66–7268 / 67–7368 / 67–7368 / 66–7366 / 65–7265 / 64–7163 / 62–6963 / 62–6964 / 62–6964 / 63–6966 / 65–7166 / 65–71

Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 5 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2099:6935 (-14.975, 166.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 5 distinct grid cells holding the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2099:6935 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -15.00_166.875, lapse-corrected +174 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 305 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSanta Cruz Is., Vanuatu· introduced: Malaya, Society Is., Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-16.034, 167.221 · in the densest population, 7 records (88% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 8 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 231 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative. 3 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 8 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Licuala grandisLicuala grandisLicuala grandisLicuala grandisLicuala grandisLicuala grandisLicuala grandisLicuala grandis

Photographs: (c) Marcio Santos Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Sarka Masova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) saltyhiker, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) er-birds, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Licuala grandis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

LoRa LPWAN Propagation Channel Modelling in IIUM Campus
Nurul Afifah Binti Masadan, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Siti Hajar Yusoff (2018)
A new species of Pestalotiopsis from leaf spots of Licuala grandis from Hainan, China
Geng Kun, Bin Zhang, Yu Song, Kevin D. Hyde (2013) · Phytotaxa
Evaluation of antioxidant and analgesic activities of three medicinal plants
Amir Hossain, Akbar Hossain, SultanaJuhara Mannan (2019) · Pharmacognosy Research
Long range channel characteristics through foliage
Nurul Afifah Binti Masadan, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Siti Hajar Yusoff (2019) · Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics
Component Acids of Palmae Seed Oils
C. D. Daulatabad, R. F. Ankalgi (1985) · Fette Seifen Anstrichmittel
Optimization of fiber content, length and its effect on overall properties of Licuala grandis leaf stalk fiber/polyester reinforced bio‐composites
Siga Selvin Deva Kumar, Rajesh Resselian, Dev Anand Manoharan, Yesudhasan Thooyavan (2024) · Journal of Polymer Science
Long Range Channel Characteristics Through Foliage
Nurul Afifah Binti Masadan, Mohamed Hadi Habaebi, Siti Hajar Yusoff (2019) · The International Islamic University Malaysia Repository (The International Islamic University Malaysia)
Extensive characterization of novel cellulosic biofiber from leaf sheath of Licuala grandis for biocomposite applications
A. Sagai Francis Britto, Joseph Selvi Binoj, Bright Brailson Mansingh, Paulvin Navin Jass (2023) · Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
Extensive characterization of optimally treated Licuala grandis leaf sheath fiber for possible bio‐reinforcement in polymer composites
Beschi Selvan Selvanayagam Lillypushpam, A. Sagai Francis Britto, Bright Brailson Mansingh, Joseph Selvi Binoj (2024) · Journal of Applied Polymer Science
Optimization of fiber length, loading and its influence on overall characteristics of Licuala Grandis peduncle fiber/polyester biocomposites for low density applications
Brifin Santhosh Selin Santhosh, Leo Dev Wins Kumaradas, Brailson Mansingh Bright, Thooyavan Yesudhasan (2024) · Multiscale and Multidisciplinary Modeling Experiments and Design
Characterization of novel cellulosic fiber from agro-waste Licuala grandis leaf stalk for sustainable reinforcement in bio-composites
Siga Selvin Deva Kumar, Rajesh Resselian, Dev Anand Manoharan (2024) · Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery
Evaluation of mechanical, thermal, and morphological properties of novel cellulosic bio-fiber from Licuala grandis peduncle for lightweight biocomposite applications
Brifin Santhosh Selin Santhosh, Leo Dev Wins Kumaradas, Brailson Mansingh Bright, Thooyavan Yesudhasan (2024) · Biomass Conversion and Biorefinery

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.