Parlor palm vs Bamboo palm

Chamaedorea elegans · Chamaedorea seifrizii

Mature size: Bamboo palm reaches about 84 inches; Parlor palm tops out near 48. Buying the wrong one for a shelf means rehoming it in a year.

Why these two get mixed up

Both are Chamaedorea, so they arrive on the same shelf under near-identical labels and are routinely swapped in the trade.

Parlor palm (Chamaedorea elegans) — **Parlor palm** — Chamaedorea elegans. Photograph by Tequila 13:54, 24 June 2007 (UTC), Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0.

Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii) — **Bamboo palm** — Chamaedorea seifrizii. Photograph by KENPEI, Wikimedia Commons , CC BY-SA 3.0.

	Parlor palm	Bamboo palm
Scientific name	Chamaedorea elegans	Chamaedorea seifrizii
Family	Arecaceae	Arecaceae
Light floor	Low	Low
Water	7–10 days	7–12 days
Humidity floor	40%	40%
Mature height	24–48 in	36–84 in
Habit	clumping	clumping
Growth rate	slow	slow
Difficulty	Easy	Easy
Toxic to pets	No	No
Typical price	$20–50	$30–100

Highlighted cells are where the two actually differ. Everything else they share.

The differences that matter

Mature size

Bamboo palm reaches about 84 inches; Parlor palm tops out near 48. Buying the wrong one for a shelf means rehoming it in a year.

Which should you buy?

In a dim room, take either — both have a low light floor.
If you forget to water, take Bamboo palm, which goes 9 days between drinks.
If it is your first plant, take either — both score 2 of 5.
For a small shelf, take Parlor palm, which stops around 48 inches.

Full entries

Parlor palm — care fields with sources, toxicity with every authority consulted, propagation and diagnosis. Bamboo palm — the same.

Sources

This database's own care records for Chamaedorea elegans and Chamaedorea seifrizii — every figure compared above.
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, Plants of the World Online — accepted names and families for Chamaedorea elegans and Chamaedorea seifrizii
ASPCA Animal Poison Control — toxicity classification for both, cited on each species entry
Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, individually credited and licensed above

Compiled and edited by Tony Valcarcel · 2026-09-12
Every comparison above is drawn from a recorded field. Where the honest distinguisher is visual we show both photographs rather than describing a leaf we have no field for. How this is sourced.