We have recently bought a plant for are apartment in the Fort Worth, Texas area. We are afraid it may be dying or infested with some kind of insect. I can not actually see the insects but there are small circular jagged holes in a few of the leaves. While a few others have fallen off. And a one has turned a yellowish-brownish color and is ready to fall or be ripped off. We were just wondering if you could help us identify what kind of plant this is and what to do to save it, if that is possible. The plant is about medium to large size (and I say it is actually a tree, but my girlfriend insists it is plant), and we live in a large one bedroom apartment (910 square feet), although there is a lot of sunlight that could come in the house through many large windows, the plant right now is in a corner next to the door because of lack of furniture and the fact that we just don't know where to put it yet. Also the weather here in Texas has not been so good lately, cold (it may even snow tomorrow) and rainy, and very cloudy, not much sunlight at all for the last 2 weeks probably. We keep the heat off most of the time and the temperture is probably around 65, but when it gets to cold we put the heater on, and it probably gets to about 75-80 degrees. Finally, the plant is green, darker green on the bottom and a light green on the top where they are new leaves. The plant sits in a medium sized pot with good soil around it and stands up about 3 feet. There is no buds on it for flowers to ever bulb. It looks somewhat like a palm tree, but no fruit will ever come off it. The leaves are long and pretty narrow. And the stalks of it look like the stalks of palm trees but much much smaller.
Well I hope this description of our apartment and the enviroment we have our plant in, and the description of the plant helps you help us by identifying what kind of plant or TREE it is. And we are also wondering how you take care of it, both with the bugs and just in general how you water it and how much light it needs, and the temperature in needs to be in. We may of just killed it by not taking care of it so we need help! Because again we can not really see the insects, but I swear when I shake it I can see them, but my girlfriend does not see them. We are just very interested in having a variety of plants in the apartment but first we need to know what kinds are good in the space we have, and how to take care of them. The reason we do not know what kind of plant or TREE the thing is, is because my mother bought it from someone at her office because they were moving into a different building and needed to get rid of them. She talked to him briefly about it but did not find out much, and only paid 10.00 dollars for it, which the man said was a GREAT deal.

Thank you for your time, and we are very excited to back.

J.R. Gutierrez and Kristine Hurt