Put a parlor palm anywhere from two to four metres back from a west window and it scores a full 100 out of 100 at 22 °C, 50% humidity and light airflow. Bring it forward and the score drops: 99 at one and a half metres, 68 at one metre, and 66 against the glass, where 7,800 lux is more light than this palm wants.
Read on 14 October 2026, the top results can’t settle whether a west window suits this palm at all. A Canadian plant shop’s product page says a room with an east or west window will be best, since the plant enjoys light. Melinda Myers suggests a north window, or a few feet back from an east or west one. The Old Farmer’s Almanac, in a guide dated the day before, picks east or north and wants the pot several feet from bright glass. On the UBC Botanical Garden forum, one grower in 2007 kept a palm in a west window, off to one side. Another, in 2008, found theirs dying in direct afternoon sun at a west window and carried it to the centre of the room.
Worth a try
It can work here with a little care.
A bit bright, but workable
Comfortable temperature
Humidity suits it
Airflow suits it
Between them, the distances on offer are a few feet, several feet and the middle of the room. Our numbers flag the first for most of the year and score the last one highest.
Is a west window too bright for a parlor palm?
Before our own numbers, here are the light figures other sources print for a parlor palm, each in its source’s own unit:
| Who publishes it | What it says a parlor palm needs | What the figure is |
|---|---|---|
| growlightmeter.com | 6 – 12 PPFD / DLI | Parlor Palm |
| extension.arizona.edu | 25–75 foot-candles | listed under the heading "Low Light (25–75 fc)" |
| houseplantjournal.com | 100 FC (20 µmol) foot-candles | minimum indirect light level |
| houseplantjournal.com | 200 FC (40 µmol) foot-candles | good indirect light level |
| houseplantsnook.com | 100–200 foot-candles | chart fc level |
Right at the glass, a little. The card above flags the light as a bit bright but workable and nothing else; the other three dimensions sit inside their bands. Worth a try is a mild verdict. It’s still more caution than the shop page’s “they do enjoy light” allows for.
The engine puts this palm’s line somewhere between the 6,000 and 4,762 lux rows of the distance table below, so a clear-day west sill at 7,800 is well past it, and so is the spot a metre in. At an east window the same palm is clear of the flag a metre back, because that sill starts dimmer. This glass needs more floor between it and the pot.
How far back from a west window does a parlor palm need to be?
About one and a half metres to clear the flag, and two for a full score. Here’s the same palm at seven distances in one west room:
| Distance from the glass | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.3 m, against the glass | 7,800 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| 1 m back | 6,000 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| 1.5 m back | 4,762 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
| 2 m back | 3,780 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
| 3 m back | 2,381 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
| 4 m back | 1,500 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
| 5 m back | 945 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
The flag outlasts the one-metre row and is gone by one and a half, as the estimate falls from 6,000 lux to 4,762. Probed in ten-centimetre steps, the light still reads a bit bright at 1.3 m and just right at 1.4, about four and a half feet. A heartleaf philodendron crosses at the same point in this window, and its page works through what three feet buys against five.
Behind the two-metre mark, distance barely registers. Three metres back reads 2,381 lux and five metres 945, and both are a great fit. It’s the same tolerance that kept this palm scoring in a dark corner four metres from a north window when we checked the cat-safe low-light plants. It was on that list because the ASPCA lists it as non-toxic to cats and dogs.
Every lux figure on this page is an estimate from window direction, distance and a clear day, not something a meter read.
Can a parlor palm sit closer to a west window in winter?
Yes, for part of the year. A metre back is about the few feet Melinda Myers suggests, so here’s that spot scored on the 21st of seven months, at latitude 40 degrees, around Madrid or Denver:
| The month it is | Estimated light | What the light is doing | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3,900 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
| February | 4,905 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
| March | 5,964 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| June | 7,200 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 66/100 |
| September | 5,982 lux | A bit bright, but workable | Worth a try, 68/100 |
| October | 4,849 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 99/100 |
| December | 3,501 lux | Just the right amount of light | Great fit, 100/100 |
December’s 3,501 lux scores 100, and every month from October to February reads a great fit. From March to September the flag comes back, lowest in midsummer: June reads 7,200 lux and 66. That’s seven months out of twelve. Read as a metre, “a few feet back” is winter advice at this window.
A ZZ plant a metre from the same glass carries its flag for fewer months, because its line sits brighter. If the pot is staying put, two metres is the spot: scored the same way, it reads a great fit in all twelve months, and so do three and four. One and a half metres, the first great row in the distance table, picks the flag back up from April to August. A Chinese evergreen at this glass runs on almost the same line.
Will afternoon sun hurt a parlor palm in a west window?
Not through light alone. At this window the sun earns the sill a flag and never a fail. We can’t know what nearly killed the 2008 palm. What the engine can show is how a sunny sill gets that far. Hold its light where it is and raise the air: at 30 °C the sill is still worth a try, and at 33 °C the verdict becomes not the best fit right now.
The air right against a west pane in late sun is usually the warmest in the room, and a thermostat on an inside wall won’t show it. Pulling the pot back fixes the light and leaves the heat: one and a half metres, 99 at 22 °C, is only worth a try at 30. The east-window page runs this palm through the whole thermometer, from a cold night pane to a hot morning sill.
Carrying the pot to the middle of the room, as that grower did, handles both, as long as the middle runs cooler than the glass.
How do I check my own west window?
These tables picture an unshaded west window on a clear day, with the pot straight back from the middle of the glass. The 2007 grower’s palm sat off to one side, which none of them scores, and a pot beside the frame catches less of the low beam than one in front of it. An eave or a tree outside takes light off as well. The west window guide covers how much afternoon sun that wall gets and what else takes it. For your own spot, the free spot checker scores it with the weather where you live.
Published October 14, 2026
