Species
+

Chamaedorea elegans Mart.

Neanthe bella palm, Parlor Palm, Parlour Palm, areca-elegante

Climate known 27 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

Chamaedorea elegans, the neanthe bella palm or parlour palm, is a species of small palm tree native to the rainforests in Southern Mexico and Guatemala. The parlor palm is one of the most extensively sold houseplant palms in the world. It is one of several species with leaves that are harvested as xate.

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

About the genus · Chamaedorea

Chamaedorea is a genus of 107 species of palms, native to subtropical and tropical regions of the Americas. They are small palms, growing to 0.3–6 m tall with slender, cane-like stems, growing in the understory in rainforests, and often spreading by means of underground runners, forming clonal colonies. The leaves are pinnate, with one to numerous leaflets. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Chamaedorea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
Mart.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +5
Wild records
446 in range· 329 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
May, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2006mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 363 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–40DLI
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 Chamaedorea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2006 mm a year, wettest September at 363 mm, driest March at 45 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 8.3 °C habitat night).
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 Chamaedorea deppeana Klotzsch; Chamaedorea elegans var. angustifolia M.Martens & Galeotti; Chamaedorea helleriana Klotzsch; Chamaedorea pulchella Linden; Chamaedorea pulchella Linden ex Hemsl. and 12 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Chamaedorea, 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 summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1482 mm of 2006 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.3 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 2006 mm a year, wettest September at 363 mm, driest March at 45 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2006 mm a year at the habitat, 1482 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 363 mm, driest March at 45 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1372 mm to 2937 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 8.3 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.3 °C, the absolute minimum -1.4 °C, 4 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.4 °C to 18.6 °C), warmest day 29.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 8.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Chamaedorea, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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: 60 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 23 °C in Jan to 29 °C in May; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2006 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 294 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–40RH 60–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 294 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 °C23 / 20–2625 / 21–2827 / 23–3129 / 25–3329 / 25–3328 / 24–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3127 / 22–3026 / 22–2825 / 21–2723 / 20–27
Night °C15 / 10–1915 / 11–1917 / 12–2019 / 14–2221 / 15–2421 / 15–2421 / 15–2321 / 15–2321 / 15–2319 / 14–2217 / 12–2015 / 11–19
Rain mm62 / 16–12153 / 16–10045 / 16–7564 / 33–92128 / 75–178301 / 191–426308 / 182–460295 / 179–470363 / 245–498215 / 131–337102 / 38–19570 / 21–155
DLI25 / 21–3230 / 25–3636 / 31–4140 / 35–4340 / 37–4236 / 33–3836 / 33–4036 / 33–3932 / 29–3429 / 27–3226 / 23–3124 / 20–30
RH %66 / 59–6964 / 57–6861 / 56–6660 / 56–6563 / 58–6767 / 63–7066 / 63–7166 / 63–7168 / 65–7267 / 63–7166 / 61–6966 / 60–69

Each figure is the median across the 294 grid cells holding the 441 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 1391:1646 (20.425, -97.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.9 °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 294 distinct grid cells holding the 441 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1391:1646 (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 20.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected +17 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 183 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.335, -96.891 · in the densest population, 252 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 446 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 329 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 101 km away. 57 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 446 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Chamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegansChamaedorea elegans

Photographs: (c) Daniel Acosta, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) josebarrientos, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Fabian Orozco, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Chamaedorea elegans, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Canopy‐level photosynthetic compensation after defoliation in a tropical understorey palm
Niels P. R. Anten, David D. Ackerly (2001) · Functional Ecology
DEFOLIATION AND GROWTH IN AN UNDERSTORY PALM: QUANTIFYING THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF COMPENSATORY RESPONSES
Niels P. R. Anten, Miguel Martı́nez-Ramos, David D. Ackerly (2003) · Ecology
Defoliation and ENSO effects on vital rates of an understorey tropical rain forest palm
Miguel Martı́nez-Ramos, Niels P. R. Anten, David D. Ackerly (2009) · Journal of Ecology
A new method of growth analysis for plants that experience periodic losses of leaf mass
Niels P. R. Anten, David D. Ackerly (2001) · Functional Ecology
Strong persistent growth differences govern individual performance and population dynamics in a tropical forest understorey palm
Merel Jansen, Pieter A. Zuidema, Niels P. R. Anten, Miguel Martı́nez-Ramos (2012) · Journal of Ecology
Modelling the phytoremediation of formaldehyde from indoor air by Chamaedorea Elegans using artificial intelligence, genetic algorithm and response surface methodology
Hakimeh Teiri, Yaghoub Hajizadeh, Mohammad Reza Samaei, Hamidreza Pourzamani (2020) · Journal of environmental chemical engineering
Resilience to chronic defoliation in a dioecious understorey tropical rain forest palm
Leonel López-Toledo, Niels P. R. Anten, Bryan A. Endress, David D. Ackerly (2012) · Journal of Ecology
Effect of Bacterial Population from Rhizosphere of Various Foliage Plants on Removal of Indoor Volatile Organic Compounds
Sechul Chun, Mung Hwa Yoo, Young Sook Moon, Mi Ho Shin (2010) · Horticultural Science and Technology
Responses of a translocated howler monkey Alouatta palliata group to new environmental conditions
A Shedden-González, Ernesto Rodríguez‐Luna (2010) · Endangered Species Research
Effect of Leaf Harvesting on the Demography of the Tropical PalmChamaedorea elegansin South-Eastern Mexico
Teresa Valverde, Mariana Hernández‐Apolinar, Sergio Mendoza-Amarom (2006) · Journal of Sustainable Forestry
Irradiance Level and Fertilizer Rate Affect Acclimatization of Chamaedorea elegans Mart.
Trinidad Reyes, Terril A. Nell, James E. Barrett, C. A. Conover (1996) · HortScience

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.

Other Chamaedorea 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 70 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.