--- title: "Indoor Palm Plants: 8 Types That Thrive Indoors (and 3 That Won't)" description: "Areca, kentia, parlour and majesty palms all look similar in the shop and behave completely differently at home. Here is which indoor palm to buy and how to keep it green." url: https://upflat.online/blog/indoor-palm-plants category: plant-guides tags: ["palms", "areca palm", "plant picks", "pet safe"] published: 2025-10-16 updated: 2026-08-09 author: "Mara Ellis, Horticulturist & founder" reading_time_minutes: 5 license: "Quotation permitted with attribution and a link to the source URL." --- # Indoor Palm Plants: 8 Types That Thrive Indoors (and 3 That Won't) **Short answer:** - Buy an understorey palm — areca, kentia or parlour. Sun-loving palms fail indoors whatever you do. - Brown tips are almost always dry air, fluoride in tap water, or fertiliser salts. - Never cut a palm's growing point: that stem cannot branch or regrow. ## Key takeaways - Buy an understorey palm — areca, kentia or parlour. Sun-loving palms fail indoors no matter how you treat them. - Brown tips on a palm are almost always dry air, fluoride in tap water, or fertiliser salts. - Palms cannot regrow a cut frond tip, so trim only for appearance and never cut the growing point. - All the palms recommended here are non-toxic to cats and dogs. Palms are sold as houseplants more than almost any other plant family, and a good share of them are simply the wrong species for a room. The distinction that decides everything is where the palm evolved — under a rainforest canopy in filtered shade, or out in open sun. Canopy palms adapt happily to a living room. Sun palms do not, and no amount of careful watering changes that. It is worth knowing which one is in the pot before you take it home. ## The palms that genuinely work indoors *All four tolerate indoor light and are non-toxic to pets.* | Palm | Botanical name | Height indoors | Light | Difficulty | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Areca / butterfly palm | Dypsis lutescens | 1.5–2.5 m | Bright indirect | Moderate | | Kentia palm | Howea forsteriana | 1.5–3 m | Moderate to bright | Easy | | Parlour palm | Chamaedorea elegans | 0.6–1.2 m | Low to moderate | Very easy | | Lady palm | Rhapis excelsa | 1–2 m | Low to moderate | Easy | | Bamboo palm | Chamaedorea seifrizii | 1–2 m | Moderate | Easy | | Ponytail palm* | Beaucarnea recurvata | 1–1.5 m | Bright to direct | Very easy | | Sago palm* | Cycas revoluta | 0.5–1 m | Bright | Moderate | | Fishtail palm | Caryota mitis | 1–2 m | Bright indirect | Moderate | *The ponytail palm and sago palm are not true palms at all — one is an asparagus relative, the other a cycad. They are sold as palms and behave very differently. The sago palm is also **severely toxic to dogs**, causing liver failure; keep it out of a home with pets. ## Areca palm: the default choice The areca is the palm most people mean when they picture an indoor palm — clustered, soft, feathery, and cheap because it grows quickly in nurseries. It wants bright indirect light within a metre or two of a window, evenly moist soil, and humidity above 40%. In darker rooms it survives but thins, dropping its lower fronds one by one. - **Water** when the top 3–4 cm of soil is dry, roughly every 5–7 days in summer. - **Never let it sit in water** — arecas rot readily, and root rot in a clumping palm spreads fast. - **Feed** at half strength monthly through spring and summer only. - **Repot** every two to three years; arecas actually prefer being slightly snug. - **Expect** the oldest lower fronds to yellow and die over time. That is normal ageing, not a problem to solve. ## Kentia palm: the one for a darker room If your room is not especially bright, buy a kentia. It grows naturally on Lord Howe Island under a canopy, tolerates moderate light without complaint, handles dry air better than an areca, and is famously slow — which is why it costs more. That slowness is an advantage indoors: it will hold its shape for years without outgrowing the corner. ## Parlour palm: the small one The parlour palm survives in genuine low light, stays under 1.2 m, and is the palm to put on a desk, a shelf or in a bathroom. It is also the cheapest, usually sold several seedlings to a pot. Its weakness is dry air: spider mites find parlour palms quickly in a heated winter room, so check the undersides of the fronds monthly. ## Palms to avoid indoors | Palm | Why it fails indoors | | --- | --- | | Majesty palm (Ravenea rivularis) | Needs full sun and permanently wet feet; declines within months in a living room | | Coconut palm (Cocos nucifera) | Requires intense light and high humidity; sold as a novelty and rarely survives a year | | Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) | A desert sun species — etiolates and weakens in any indoor light | | Queen palm (Syagrus) | Grows too fast and too large, and needs full sun | **Figure: Reading brown on a palm frond** Where the brown appears on a frond tells you the cause. Check the pattern before changing anything about your watering. ## Why palm leaves go brown, and what to do 1. **Brown, crispy tips on many fronds** — Dry air is the usual cause. Group plants together, use a humidifier, or move the palm away from heating. Misting helps for minutes only. 2. **Brown tips plus white crust on the soil** — Fertiliser salt buildup. Flush the pot with water equal to three times its volume, then feed at half the previous strength. 3. **Brown tips on a plant watered with tap water** — Palms are sensitive to fluoride and boron. Switch to filtered or collected rainwater and judge by the new fronds. 4. **A whole frond yellowing from the bottom up** — If it is the lowest frond and the plant is otherwise growing, this is normal ageing. Cut it at the base. 5. **Fine webbing between fronds** — Spider mites. Rinse thoroughly in the shower, then treat with insecticidal soap every 5–7 days for three cycles. > **Never cut the growing point** > Palms grow from a single terminal bud at the top of each stem. Cut that off and the stem is finished — it cannot branch or resprout. Trim brown tips with scissors following the leaf shape, and remove only fully dead fronds at the base. One more practical note, learned the expensive way: palms are usually sold as several seedlings crammed into one pot to look full. Do not try to separate them into individual plants. The root systems are thoroughly intertwined, division sets every piece back badly, and the clump is what makes an indoor palm look good in the first place. If yours looks sparse, the answer is better light rather than more pots. For placement ideas, see our [living room plant guide](/blog/indoor-plants-for-living-room). ## Frequently asked questions ### Is the areca palm an indoor plant? Yes. The areca palm (Dypsis lutescens) is one of the most widely grown indoor palms. It needs bright indirect light, evenly moist soil and moderate humidity, and it is non-toxic to cats and dogs. ### Which palm is best for indoors? The kentia palm for moderate light and the areca palm for a bright room. If the space is small or dim, the parlour palm is the better choice, staying under 1.2 m and tolerating genuine low light. ### Why are my indoor palm leaves turning brown at the tips? Most often dry air, then fluoride in tap water, then fertiliser salt buildup. Raise humidity, switch to filtered water, and flush the pot thoroughly every few months. Damaged tips never recover, so judge any fix by the new fronds. ### How often should I water an indoor palm? Every five to seven days in summer and every ten to fourteen days in winter, once the top 3–4 cm of soil is dry. Palms dislike both drought and standing water, so drain the saucer after every watering. ### Do indoor palms need direct sunlight? No. The palms suited to indoor life evolved under a forest canopy and prefer bright indirect light. Harsh direct sun through glass scorches their fronds, while palms that do need full sun, such as the majesty palm, are poor indoor plants. ## Sources - Houseplants: plant profiles — Royal Horticultural Society. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/types/houseplants - Plant Finder — Missouri Botanical Garden. https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/plantfinder/plantfindersearch.aspx - Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List — ASPCA Animal Poison Control. https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/toxic-and-non-toxic-plants - Sago Palm poisoning in dogs — Pet Poison Helpline. https://www.petpoisonhelpline.com/poison/sago-palm/ --- Source: https://upflat.online/blog/indoor-palm-plants — Upflat, written by Mara Ellis, reviewed 2026-08-09.