The needle palm assumes a shrublike clumping form with several stems growing from a single base, the stems growing very slowly and tightly together, eventually forming a dense base tall, with numerous sharp needle-like spines produced between the leaves; these are long and protect the stem growing point from browsing animals.
12.
In more inland and in colder winter areas there are several specimens thriving in the lower Ohio Valley / Greater Cincinnati where extensive published research has been led by Miami University, Ohio and in other interior areas of the USA . Needle palms need hot summers to thrive and the species does not grow well in the cool summer climates mentioned above.
13.
Also evidencing this climatic transition from a subtropical to continental climate, several plants such as the Southern magnolia " ( Magnolia grandiflora ) ", Albizia julibrissin ( mimosa ), Crape Myrtle, and even the occasional Needle Palm are hardy landscape materials regularly used as street, yard, and garden plantings in the Bluegrass region of Ohio; but these same plants will simply not thrive in much of the rest of the State.
