Aloha Organic · Niu field guide

What damage can look like.

Compare leaf patterns and crown condition before deciding on your next step.

Coconut palm in Hawaiʻi with heavily notched and damaged fronds — Documented CRB damage on a coconut palm in Hawaiʻi, photographed in 2015. Scot Nelson · Photograph source · CC0 · Unmodified.

Look for a pattern

Read the leaves.
See the whole tree.

V-shaped notches: feeding on folded growth can become visible as angular gaps when fronds open.
Bore holes: examine accessible areas around the crown for entry holes and disturbed material.
Fan palms: damage can appear as scalloped edges or a repeated “snowflake” pattern.
Canopy condition: record new damage and changes over time, alongside wider photographs.

These signs support an assessment; they do not establish the cause of every damaged palm. Seek identification help when uncertain.

Photograph safely from the ground.

Take a whole-tree view, a crown view, and close details where safely accessible. Keep dates and locations with your images. Leave climbing and inspection of unstable palms to qualified professionals.

Use the observation checklist

Sources & reading notes

Reviewed October 22, 2026. Aloha Organic summaries draw on the sources below.

Aloha Organic · Science field plates

How damage becomes visible.

Science-book botanical plate labeling an opening coconut frond, leaflets and the rachis, with angular missing tissue visible on lateral fronds. — Read the frond structure: narrow leaflets attach to a central rachis. Angular gaps in the leaflets can reveal earlier feeding on folded growth. Compare this educational illustration with the real damage photograph; the pattern alone is not a diagnosis.Runway illustration · Reference: Scot Nelson photograph · CC0 · Generated interpretation; compare with the real photograph.

Open full-size plate Download illustration ↓

Read the labels

What each part tells you.

Open a label for a plain-language explanation.

Opening frond

An upright young leaf unfolding from the crown. Earlier feeding on folded tissue may become visible as it opens.

V-shaped cuts

Angular areas of missing leaf tissue can appear across groups of leaflets. They are not simply the normal spaces between fronds.

Leaflets

The narrow blades arranged along a coconut frond give it its feather-like shape.

Rachis

The central axis of a frond, supporting the leaflets along either side.

Palm crown

The entire leafy top of the palm. Photograph this whole structure as well as individual damage details, and compare new growth over time.

Anatomy and size reference: SPC manual, chapter 2 . Generated educational interpretations are shown beside real reference photographs.

Feeding in folded growthAdults bore into the crown and feed on developing tissue. Later leaf emergence can reveal the injury.

Angular gaps in open frondsLook for repeated V-shaped cuts across leaflets. Keep a whole-crown image alongside the close detail.

Revisit and compareA damaged frond records earlier feeding. Date photographs and compare new growth; a single pattern does not explain every declining palm.

For the manual’s original photographs and diagrams, read damage recognition, printed pages 10–13