I’m a bit confused. The author refers to the palm as he, but says it has flowers. Even if it is not self fertile, wouldn’t it be possible to fertilize the flowers with pollen from another palm?
All flowering plants produce flowers, but the flowers can be male, female, or both. If the flowers have stamen, they produce pollen and are male. If the flowers contain pistils, they are female and able to make seeds once exposed to pollen. Some flowers have both pistils and stamen, and some of these can self-fertilize. Some plants produce separate male and female flowers; sometimes, these can also self-fertilize. Other plants only produce male or female flowers. It would seem that the palm is one of those plants.