Trunk to 20 m tall, 15 cm wide, grey, usually smooth. Leaves 20-30, each 3-4 m long, arching, dark green above. Leaflets regularly arranged in the same plane, silvery white below. Fruit 4-5 cm long, greenish to yellowish or brown.
South America
An attractive palm which deserves to become more widely grown. Needs protection from frost when young.
P. torallyi Burret, from Bolivia, has recently been introduced into cultivation. Its leaves are green on both surfaces. Since P. cocoides is known only from plants cultivated at high altitude in Andean towns of Ecuador and Colombia and only differs slightly in floral characters from P. torallyi, it is considered that it probably originated from the wild P. torallyi.
NSW: Sydney (Royal Botanic Garden Sydney).
Source: (2005). Arecaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 5. Flowering plants. Monocotyledons. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.