Sago palm
Metroxylon sagu
A swamp palm felled once, after 10 to 15 years, for the starch in its trunk: the staple of the Sepik. Each clump keeps sending up new trunks.
Hardiness: zones 11 to 12
Light: full sun
Size: about 35 ft tall, 25 ft wide
Harvest: year-round
From: New Guinea and the Moluccas
Here: Too tender to overwinter outdoors on the Lake Erie shore (zone 6b to 7a): grow it in a pot and bring it in, or treat it as an annual.
Good for: food, wildlife, screens and hedges.
Native to: New Guinea & Melanesia, South & Southeast Asian tropics. Hardy in zones 11 to 12.
The story
Along the Sepik River and in the swamps of lowland New Guinea, sago is the staff of life. A family fells a mature palm, splits the trunk, pounds the pith and washes the starch out in a trough of palm-leaf sheaths, then cooks it into pancakes or a clear jelly eaten with fish and greens. One palm can feed a household for months.
Planting
Full sun in swampy or permanently wet ground, frost-free and hot. Plant suckers from an established clump.
Growing
Very little care: keep the ground wet and thin the suckers so a few trunks grow on. A trunk flowers once and dies, so it is cut just before flowering.
Harvest and use
Harvest a trunk at about 10 to 15 years for its starch; young leaves thatch roofs.
What to watch for
Spiny leaf stalks on some forms. It needs truly wet ground and constant heat.
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More tropical and subtropical food plants
General guidance, not professional advice. Conditions vary by yard and year; for local specifics ask your county extension office. Never eat a wild plant you cannot identify with certainty. Traditional uses are shared as history, not medical advice. © 2026 Sean Priest · Irie Orchard. Terms & credits · Privacy · Home