kentia

/ ˈkɛntɪə /

noun

1. a plant name formerly used to include palms now allotted to several different genera and still used commercially to denote the feather palm genus Howea, native to Lord Howe Island, popular as greenhouse or house plants for their decorative arching foliage: family Palmaceae

Word History and Origins

Origin of kentia¹

named after William Kent (died 1828), British botanist

Example Sentences

But soon you, too, will know the joys of tending twenty-plus houseplants in a heat wave, of ripping dead fronds from your Kentia palms and ruining your favorite copy of “The Portrait of a Lady” with the dank spillover from a watered Calathea orbifolia.

From The New Yorker

An old-school law firm might be more interested, however, in the aristocratic vibe of a kentia palm.

From Washington Post

Sure, the shops, which line West 28th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, feature luscious colors, with tulips from the Netherlands, orchids from Taiwan and Kentia palms from Hawaii.

From New York Times

The following genera are among those most commonly cultivated: Acanthophoenix Chamaerops Martinezia Acanthorhiza Cocos Oreodoxa Areca Corypha Phoenix Bactris Geonoma Pritchardia Brahea Hyophorbe Rhapis Calamus Kentia Sabal Caryota Latania Stevensonia Ceroxylon Livistonia Thrinax Chamaedorea     Ferns.—These popular plants are usually increased by means of their spores, the “dust” produced on the back of their fronds.

From Project Gutenberg

The fifth division is a resting-place, where one may sit beneath a grand specimen of Kentia Forsteri, surrounded by palms as in a nook of the jungle, to compare notes and talk of orchids.

From Project Gutenberg