Chamaerops humilis var 'Cerifera'

Chamaerops humilis var 'Cerifera'.
Left - a very old specimen in the boanical gardens at Puerto de la Cruz in the north of Tenerife. It has been found to grow more slowly than the species and is perhaps hardier because of it's wild habitat in the Atlas Moutnains of Morocco where it can be found at 1700m above sea level. 
Right - Now common in the UK nursery trade, this is the size of plant we are more likely to see. The silver grey waxy leaves are a sign that this palm experiences high intensity sunlight usually found at high altitude. This plant is growing in Palermo botanical garden
Thanks to Esculapio for this photo which is reproduced here under the Creative Commons lisence. Its further use is subject to this lisence-a link to the full terms is on our resources page.   

You can clearly see the similarities between the species the European Fan Palm  - C. humilis, in the foreground here and it's silver variety 'Cerifera' in the background. The two plants are virtually identical in botanical terms, having the same leaf, flower and fruit/seed structure. The only differences are the colour of the leaf and perhaps 'Cerifera' is less vigorous in growth; you can see here that the species in the foreground has many crowns and 'bushy' looking habit due to the numerous lower suckers, whereas the silver form is limited to 4 crowns. One of the similarities that the species and variety share is that they are both variable in leaf form, colour and size, this plant probably has larger than usual leaves because it is growing in a shady position. These specimens are leaning and reaching for the light like many of the plants in this botanical garden in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife. The gardens are very old and contain a great number of trees that now overly shade some of the plants below.