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Rhapidophyllum hystrix; photograph (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-01

Rhapidophyllum hystrix (Fraser ex Thouin) H.Wendl. & Drude

Needle palm; Blue-palmetto; Porcupine palm

Arecaceae · Alabama, Florida +3

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Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph (c) David Wilkins, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph (c) David Wilkins, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY) 94 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.3°C
Record low -11.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,367mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes January to March and June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Rhapidophyllum hystrix, the needle palm, is a palm native to coastal margins of the subtropical eastern Gulf and south Atlantic states of the United States. Populations can be found from coastal southeast South Carolina, southward to Florida and west across the coastal plain of Mississippi and southern Alabama. It is one of the most cold-hardy palms in the world, and can be found growing in several areas with warm temperate climates.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rhapidophyllum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,017 mm of 1,449 mm) falls in January to March and June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.6 °C against a yearly mean of 19.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March and July to September.

Rain

1,449 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,017 mm of it January to March and June to September. Wettest month July at 178 mm, driest month October at 82 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,256 mm to 1,571 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,367 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,449 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.3 °C, the absolute minimum -11.3 °C, 820 frost nights in 44 years, 18.6 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 3.8 °C to 10.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.0 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -10 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Rhapidophyllum hystrix through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.7 °C; 1,449 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost38.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-11.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 18–41RH 56–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 243 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 13–2018 / 16–2222 / 20–2425 / 24–2729 / 28–3031 / 30–3232 / 31–3332 / 31–3230 / 29–3026 / 24–2822 / 19–2417 / 14–21
Night °C7 / 4–118 / 5–1211 / 9–1414 / 12–1718 / 17–2022 / 21–2323 / 23–2423 / 22–2421 / 20–2317 / 14–2012 / 9–168 / 5–12
Rain mm112 / 67–133116 / 73–140134 / 100–15584 / 63–11584 / 65–108172 / 110–197178 / 131–203175 / 106–208130 / 90–17782 / 70–9884 / 52–11798 / 65–131
DLI20 / 18–2224 / 23–2632 / 30–3339 / 37–4041 / 40–4239 / 37–4038 / 37–3935 / 34–3531 / 30–3226 / 25–2821 / 20–2318 / 16–20
RH %58 / 58–5958 / 57–5957 / 56–5856 / 55–5858 / 56–6062 / 59–6363 / 61–6464 / 61–6562 / 59–6458 / 57–6158 / 57–5959 / 58–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 243 grid cells holding the 558 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1190:1910 (30.475, -84.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -11.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 243 distinct grid cells holding 558 of the 558 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1190:1910 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_-84.375, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 36 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeAlabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker30.518, -84.823 · in the densest population, 633 records (80% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 792 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 558 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 247 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 257 km away. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 234 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 792 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Rhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph 1did not loadRhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph 2did not loadRhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph 3did not loadRhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph 4did not loadRhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph 5did not loadRhapidophyllum hystrix, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) David Wilkins, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Nyssa ogeche Nyssa ogeche Ogeechee tupelo Photo: CC0, author not statedBrickellia cordifolia Brickellia cordifolia Flyr's Brickellbush Photo: CC BY, Ashwin SrinivasanMagnolia ashei Magnolia ashei Ashe's magnolia Photo: CC BY, mfeaverLupinus villosus Lupinus villosus Lady lupine Photo: CC BY-SA, Turner BrockmanClematis reticulata Clematis reticulata Netleaf leather flower Photo: CC0, author not statedIllicium parviflorum Illicium parviflorum Swamp star anise Photo: CC BY, Scott Ward

Names & registers

Also known as Chamaerops hystrix; Corypha hystrix; Rhapis caroliniana; Sabal hystrix. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(Fraser ex Thouin) H.Wendl. & Drude
Native to
Alabama, Florida, Georgia +2
Wild records
792 in range · 247 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 70 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (66 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 30.50_-84.375, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Rhapidophyllum hystrix to Rhapidophyllum, this species' genus (Q16060793), which holds one accepted species in Kew's WCVP
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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