Origin: Japan. One of the most primitive plants, a survivor of vegetation from a million years ago. The columnar trunk is marked by scars left by the stalks of the leaves as they fall off, and is topped by a large, showy tuft of evergreen leaves. Suckers and shoots often grow at the base of the plant and along the trunk or branches and form attractive multistemmed or multi-branched specimens. Pinnate leaves, 1.50m or more long, slightly arcuate, made up of 100 or more leaflets, very close together, 7-8cm, linear, opposite, leathery, pointed and glossy green. Flowers and fruit: the male plants produce clusters of flowers which look like upright pine cones and smell like pineapple; the female plants produce an inflorescence made of a rosette of brown leaves covered in thick hair. When grown in the open ground it requires fertile, moist, well drained soil, plenty of light but protected from very hot sun. In containers it should be watered from spring to autumn. During winter it requires less water and humidity.