Boasting of a Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, Chamaedorea elegans (parlor palms) is a beautiful garden or indoor houseplant. Is it safe for cats or toxic?
Summary
- Name: Chamaedorea elegans
- Common names: neanthe bella, parlor or porlour palm
- Family: Arecaceae (palm family)
- Origin: Guatemala and Southern Mexico rainforests
- Cultivation: House and garden plant
- Safe to pets: Yes
Safety
If you love palms, you deserve to know that Chamaedorea elegans, parlor palm, is safe for cats, dogs, and horses. It is also safe for humans, including your children.
Besides Chamaedorea elegans, other palms in the family Arecaceae including majesty, bamboo, kentia, dwarf, palms, and Livistona rotundifolia, are also safe for your pets.
However, queen or king sago palms (cycad family) are toxic to cats because of cycasin, which as ASPCA notes, will cause “vomiting, melena, icterus, increased thirst, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, bruising, coagulopathy, liver damage, liver failure, death.”
Also, while plats like azalea, dracaena, tulips, caladium, corn plants, chrysanthemums, stargazer lilies, poinsettia, aloe vera, English ivy, jade plants, snake plants, and so on are toxic, there are many safe plants. You don’t have a reason to have them unless you are willing to ensure your cats or children cannot access them.
Instead, why not pick one of the safe plants like prayer plants (calatheas), lipstick plant, cast iron plant, Chinese money plant, Boston fern, African violets, bromeliads, friendship plant, among others.
Growing tips
Being safe for cats, their beautiful light green fronds (with some cultivars have dark green leaves), and the fact that they grow slowly make them a perfect houseplant for people in temperate regions. However, if you live in the tropical, you can have them as gardens or outdoor plants where they may grow much taller.
To grow parlor palms, here is what they need:
- Sunlight: Require indirect medium to bright light but not intense sunlight. However, it can also tolerate places that have low indirect light.
- Temperature: Average home temperature that ranges from 65°F-75°F or even up to 85°F. While it can still thrive at temperatures as low as 50 °F, frost kills them.
- Humidity: They thrive in average to high humidity
- Fertilizer: During growing seasons, feed them once or twice with weak liquid fertilizers and avoid fertilizers during winters.
- Watering – Water once in 1-2 weeks giving their soil a chance to dry. However, if they are in bright light, they may need more often watering than those in a place with low light.
- Soil: Peat based, high-quality potting soil.
Conclusion
As charming indoor or outdoor ornamental plants and safe for cats and other pets, Chamaedorea elegans are an excellent choice as they are not so hard to care for so long as they are not frost-bitten.
Also, low humidity may make their leaves brown and have crispy tips, while overwatering them will cause their stems to blacken and leaves yellow.