Montgomery Palmetum & Palm Collection

Montgomery Palmetum & Palm Collection

Universally recognized as symbols of the tropics, palms are some of the most beloved and important plants. Fairchild’s world-renowned palm collection includes more than 500 species, representing the global diversity of sizes, shapes, and growth forms. Palms are found everywhere at Fairchild, but the 13-acre Montgomery Palmetum is the core of our collection. Its thirty garden plots were originally mapped out in the 1930s by William Lyman Phillips, the Garden’s landscape architect. His original design specified the kinds of palms for each plot, an arrangement intended to help botany students and casual visitors recognize similarities and differences among species.