A native of Madagascar, the Dypsis Lutescens palm plant -- also known as the areca or yellow butterfly palm -- grows clusters of slender, erect stalks with feathery, compound leaves. This palm does best in warm, humid conditions. A popular houseplant, the areca palm is fairly easy to care for as long as you donâÂÂt over-water it. Although it is a heavy feeder, its fronds may yellow if it is over-fertilized.

Are you misting it? And what is the exact name of it? I have a Majesty palm (fronds look very much like yours) and I mist it every day although it still struggles to survive Illinois winter. Do not overwater - the yellowing of the leaves might also be because of overwatering. And make sure it doesn't stand on the way of any drafts coming from the heater or windows. Good luck!

Is it just the oldest leaf turning brown?

The pasted links wouldn't work for me.

To see an image, copy the link, paste it in the address bar of a new tab (or window), then click the arrow (toward the left) to download it.

As to what might have happened, any chance of exposure to cold?
Say, during transport to your place?
Or after you got it home?

I did that, Jean. The images were not there. Were you able to see them? If downloading is necessary, I'm not doing that. I still can't see the pics, but here's the links in clickable form...

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This post was edited by purpleinopp on Thu, Feb 20, 14 at 9:42

Sorry for the trouble with the links. I'll use dropbox next time.

I don't think this could be from exposure to the cold since it never dips below 50's outside here and is not that cold inside.

I have started misting it regularly in case that helps.

Yes, the oldest leaves appear to be the ones browning.

The palm is a Kentia palm I think.

Seems to be holding steady in it's current condition for now...

A palm is designed to discard the oldest leaf periodically, it's just what they do. Hopefully that's all that's going on with your plant.

Does the pot have a drain hole? Are you using water with chlorination or fluoride? Any chance it got too much fertilizer?

You can still add more pics here using the browse button, 1 pic per post, or may want to try a service like Flickr, Photobucket, Imageshack, that folks know work well to post pics here (multiple pics in single post, using "HTML.")

If google wasn't holding my email hostage from something I must have signed up for years ago but don't remember, I'd try to help with that, how to share pics stored there if possible. I can't supply the phone number I used at the time, remember what it was I signed up for, when I might have done it, and they won't email password.

Purple, thanks for the links.

The problem isn't frost-bite. The spots are brown, frost-bitten leaves are gray.

Sebastian.. How large is the container? You said you first watered once a week, 'when soil got 'completely' dry,' now twice a week.
'Palm' soil should never get extremely dry.

When you water, do you saturate the entire root ball? Please, don't give sips.

Palms love rain and/or showers...But carrying an 8' palm is a lot of work..not good for the back either. :)

In the meantime, mist fronds, daily if possible.

Unfortunately, brown fronds will not green. Perhaps, some leaves can be trimmed...

Rotate your palm 1/4 turn, once a week.

Good luck, Toni