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A view from my deck ! 15 years old and my largest of 4 Lepidorachis.

Really a magnificent palm. Stout, but not overly large, moderate grower, and good color especially after losing a leaf sheath. Prominent basal leaves on extraordinary long fronds add to the picture. Planted early 2012 from a 1 gallon. Tim

Nothing better than a day in the bush, checking out the native palms, even a couple of Livistona Australis in the steep sandstone rocky country!

My students and I have been landscaping our school for 40 years and we have a long-tested collection of Sabal palms. I thought that people in zone 8* would be interested in what can be grown long term. The coldest temps these palms have experienced is low teens. I will add more pics if people are interested. The list: S. causiarum, S. minor, S. tamaulipensis, S. rosei, S. x texensis, S. uresana (green and silver), S. pumos, S. bermudana, S. mexicana, S. etonia, S. palmetto Lisa. (4 years old). Added last summer: S. blackburniana, S. miamiensis. In our area, S. palmetto reseeds like crazy. S. minor is native and common in low lying areas. Rhapidophyllum and Serenoa are native about 1 hour south of town. Pictures in order top to bottom: S. causiarum, S. uresana (silver), S. tamaulipensis, S. Lisa, S. Riverside, S. palmetto

I've had one for a few years here in Lakeland: My Progress Thread: Palms and Others of Interest

It’s been a long road to get to this point, but we’ve finally achieved it, we own acreage in Australia 🥳. The acre parcel is located 3 km from the township of Malanda, 15 minutes to Atherton (main hub on the Atherton Tablelands), and just over an hour down the stunning Gillies Range highway to Cairns. 740 metres above sea level and typically 6-7C cooler than Cairns in summer (29 Vs. 36C this Saturday), with minimums rarely dropping below 12C in winter. Also humidity tends to be lower. I’m hoping the climate is a suitable candidate for Juania australis, Ceroxylon, and Hedyscepe. The land is red volcanic soil, which is very fertile with good drainage and moisture retention. Ultimately I would like to build a house on it and retire up there over the next 10-15 years, but that all depends on if I can convince my wife to leave the Gold Coast. If not, we’ll use it as a holiday home and split our time between the two locations accordingly. For now, it’s my playground to plant sun loving palms that will provide future canopy. As each species goes in, I’ll update this thread. The YouTube video shows the land as it is now. Over the next few months all the infrastructure will go in (town water, underground power, sealed roads, concrete access driveway etc).

Howea forsteriana is one of my favorite landscape palms. I planted several small ones throughout the years. These are some of the ones in the front yard. They become very dramatic in the wind and since coconuts are impossible here, these are about as close as you can get as a Cocos impersonator.

Woke up to the alarm going from the security cameras, so in a pair of jocks raced out the door half asleep, and there was this palm theif going hell for leather shoving palms in her trolley faster than Donald trump’s tariffs going around the world. I don’t know who got more of a surprise, the palm pilfering fingers froze up in shock at some raving palm nut standing there in his jocks half asleep or me seeing this google eyed palm nut helping herself to the finest palms know to man kind. I mean come on I had heard of rumours on palmtalk about a heist, apparently possum peachy and her accomplise California @Harry’s Palms sitting in the getaway truck had plotted a hit unknown to me but iam sure others where in on it, butter fingers @gyuseppethe Italian connection iam sure was involved, he has some good connections to move such goodies abroad @Than @Phoenikakias, and some local connections @Jonathan and @tim_brissy_13 had orders in for anything that would live in refrigerator. But I shrugged off such a brazen attempt. California Harry was heard yelling hurry up will you, but then I heard him say quick grab that one as well. I mean how much can koala 🐨 bear! An international hit right from behind the scenes, with the mastermind of the operation going hell for leather at it. I have put up a picture of the said palm pilfering person involved. So any information is greatly appreciated, as the authorities just said good luck catching her we been waiting for years to catch her, she keeps alluding us. And she had a possy of pekinese dogs as protection foaming at the mouth sent charging at me! Just let it be known that the peachy possum gang and the head Don @palmtreesforpleasure the mastermind behind such a brazen attempt have all been put on Santa’s naughty list, where watching you lot🌱🤣

These three are my only Archontophoenix purpurea and I’m just wondering if the heavy black tomentum on their trunks is unusual or typical. Whichever it is, I like it. These were purchased as seedlings from Floribunda a few years ago.

The bulging crownshaft on this almost twenty year old Chrysalidocarpus decipiens makes me think there’s something good lurking underneath it. Could it be about to produce an inflorescence? Will have to wait ‘til the attached frond dies and falls off.

Crazy how the west coast of florida was barely affected beyond normal temps. These coconuts are in new port richey in pasco county well north of tampa. Untouched. There use to be a massive mango tree on the property aswell the trunk was 2ft in diameter or bigger tree was massive. They cut it down. No idea why. I took this picture 30 min ago. These are growing further north than people say is possible but here they are and still look amazing after all this winter has thrown at them.

Becarriophoenix alfredi. Two of my biggest show no frond damage. you can see the foxtails above the first photo got fried of course, can always see damage weeks later but I’m impressed with this palm

I gave this palm a fresh haircut and trim - i have to say that it looks amazing that way

Here’s a teddy bear going into rocket mode. It’s gonna gain a lot of height fast after this.

North central Florida has a long and rich history of recurrent extreme cold snaps. Take Volusia county as an example. Extreme freezes were recorded back quite a ways : Jan. 2nd 1766 -- The ground was frozen to an inch in depth along the St. John River. This wiped out the entire citrus crop in the area. Feb. 8th 1835 -- The St. John River froze 50+ feet out from the shores as the temp went into the single digits. Ocala (Ft. King then) hit 11 degrees. Fruit trees were wiped out from South Carolina and Georgia southwards. It was said that fruit trees were "destroyed, roots and all" as far south as the 28th parallel, which would include Tampa Bay on the west coast and Cape Canaveral on the east coast. Again they got hit in 1857 and 1866. The 1870s were pretty rough. with a severe freezes in 1873, 1876, 19879, and 1880. 1886 is another notable freeze. The temps dipped into the teens. 1894 - 1895 was the next big freeze. And again in 1898 where it dropped from 78 degrees to 18 degrees with freezes for 4 straight days. Then there was a 17 year stretch before the next weak freeze of 1916. After that it was mild but some hard freezes in 1962, 1983, and 1985, and of course 1989. That's 200 years worth of heavy impact freezing which repeatedly set back the citrus industry in the area. Spoken communications (recorded in Spaniard documents) with the Seminole Indian tribe, when the Spaniards kicked off planting citrus into north Florida, records a few instances where the indians were perplexed that the spaniards were attempting to plant those crops in the area. This indicates that recurrent cold snaps have been known by the indians to be very routine in the likely hundreds of years prior to the 1700s. Going into the future : Florida is geographically south of an area that has an abundance of cold air (Canada and the arctic above that). The Appalachians is the only physical barrier to cold air heading south. It's a better barrier than we have in Texas as the only barrier to our north is barbed-wire fences and that does nothing. Northern florida is not as protected by water as southern florida is, and it sits several degree further north. Climatologically it sits within the outer envelope of the long Gaussian cold tail (as do all the states that border the Gulf of Mexico). Deep south FL is in the short non-Gaussian cold tail and would require an extreme event and an abormal setup where low level blocking occurs just to the east of florida and cold air advection comes almost straight south down the center of the state and pools. Basically this climatology will not change much over time. A warmer earth will not eradicate extreme cold snaps, unless and until it could melt the poles and Greenland. I would continue to expect periodic deep freezes with temperatures similar to recent history (since the end of the little ice age). Maybe the periodicity changes as large scale processes such as ENSO and PDO continue to oscillate back and forth. Yes, those are in the Pacific ocean but they affect circulation thousands of miles downstream. This past year PDO has been the deepest negative it's ever been and is likely to flip in the next decade or so. With it, ENSO will likely go back to a state where El Nino events are seen more frequently. But, until the Polar areas completely melt away; not likely in the next few generations of humans, then the threat of cold snaps will continue. Ok, I will step off away from the keyboard now .... I originally planned to only reply about the past freeze events, but my history as meteorologist kicked in. -Matt

Thank you @Josue Diaz for hitting me up with great palms

Satakentia, trunk is clean, smooth, and straight as an arrow. Looking good in the afternoon sun. Tim

Probably not that exciting for most palmtalkers, but a healthy Chrysalidocarpus lutescens in my neighbourhood is not common at all. Probably the largest one I know of in all of Melbourne. North facing wall, less than 1km from the beach. The popular opinion is that they don’t grow here but can do ok if conditions suit.

Chrysalidocarpus titan beginning to gain more height. No trunk yet, easily 15ft. tall. Had to get a pic with the blooming vireya.

I see a few out there in palm land want to start selling plants. It’s quite simple really, you don’t need a degree in business management! Step one choose quality stock to send, the customer is always right. Make sure they are aware of what you’re sending, seller communication is critical. Package your plants well, this is critical for a couple of reason, it’s nice to receive well presented plants, and if there are delays in shipping your plants stand a better chance of arriving in better condition. Post immediately express postage, there are various methods of packaging choose one that suits your taste, but remember you should be able to shake the packaging and nothing move around. And if all goes well you will have yourself a nice little hobby business that can grow as big as you want. Remember quality plants packaged well, seller communication and your in the business of supplying plants!

I was able to force this color with 23 degrees but i don't think I’ll be able to maintain this look.

Chrysalidocarpus Basilongus

I'll let you know how this beccariophoenix does in Orlando. Current forecast is 25F. Way too big to protect so I'll just water the soil well

I know there are older threads with similar themes, but hopefully we can get this forum moving again. Post your pics before the snow melts.

Hello everyone, My name is Sebastián Vieira, and I’m writing from Colombia. I’m a naturalist and currently the Executive Director of Salvamontes Colombia, a non-profit organization focused on the conservation and restoration of threatened species and their habitats, mainly through the creation and long-term care of private natural reserves. Although I didn’t come to conservation through a formal biology track ( I originally studied and worked as an engineer and spent many years working in telecommunications ), my interest in plants and the natural world has been with me for as long as I can remember. Over time, that curiosity slowly turned into field work, conservation projects, nature photography, and taxonomic research, especially on Pleurothallid orchids. It was that long, hands-on relationship with nature that lead me to be a co-founder of Salvamontes, and nowadays, its leader. Andy Hurwitz invited to come and participate in PalmTalk, and share with everyone here our amazing story, so it’s really nice to finally introduce SalvaMontes and our work here, especially thanks to the invitation from the International Palm Society, whose support has been fundamental for one of the projects I care most deeply about. That project is the Sabinaria Natural Reserve, located in the Darién region of northwestern Colombia, close to the border with Panama. This is an incredibly rich rainforest area, still poorly studied, and it happens to be the only place on Earth where the striking palm Sabinaria magnifica is found. A few years ago, while visiting the area, it became clear that much of the known habitat of Sabinaria magnifica was privately owned and increasingly exposed to deforestation and land-use change. Given how limited the species’ distribution is, it doesn’t take much habitat loss to create serious long-term risks. With that in mind and with crucial support from the International Palm Society, we were able to acquire and legally protect 50 hectares of tropical rainforest, securing what we believe is a meaningful portion of the global habitat and population of Sabinaria magnifica. Today, that forest is permanently protected as a private natural reserve. What makes this especially rewarding is that Sabinaria magnifica also works as an umbrella species. By protecting its habitat, we’re also conserving many other threatened organisms that depend on the same intact forest. This includes species like the critically endangered harlequin frog Atelopus fronterizo and the rare tree Magnolia sambuensis, along with many other plants and animals that are still little known. For us, Sabinaria is much more than a single-species project. It reflects a broader way of doing conservation: protecting habitat first, learning directly from the field, working with local communities, and committing to long-term stewardship rather than short-term interventions. I’m really glad to be here and look forward to learning from all of you, sharing updates from the field, and exchanging ideas about palms and their conservation around the world. I am also sharing some images showing the Sabinaria palm and its natural habitat. Finally, it is very important to thank and recognize the important support and participation of biologists Norman Echavarría, Norberto López, Saul Hoyos, Gloria Galeano and Rodrigo Bernal. Without them this project would not be a reality. PS: I will come back soon with additional information and images. Warm regards from Colombia, Sebastián Salvamontes Colombia

Some pictures from today mid summer. Going for 32C today and forecast overnight thunderstorms. It doesn’t get better than this.

After a few months : dictyocarium lamarkianum first leaf !

Huge inflorescence on an Arenga micrantha ready to pop at the SF Botanical Garden. Everyone else was there for the magnolias

There's a lot of brown, a bit of green, and lots of hope and prayers!!

Used some tarps and 8 ft stakes at an angle to create a northerly wind block. Ran C9 lights under them. Also made some visqueen greenhouses on some smaller palms in the yard, and within the tarp windbreak. Palms that are protected: Coccothrinax Azul Coccothrinax Hiorami Pinanga Adagensis Thrinax Radiata Chamaedorea CostaRicana, Ernesti Augustii, Microspadix and Cataractarum Chambeyronia Macrocarpa Howea Forsteriana Palms that are going to die: Chrysalidocarpus Pembana, Lanceolata Chambeyronia Oliviformis Archontophoenix Myolensis, Tuckeri Sabal Mauritiformis Palms that got the crown wrapped and C9 lights and will defoliate: Archontophoenix Cunninghamiana x2 Beccariophoenix Alfredii. Forecast for SW Volusia 24 tonight, and 27 Sunday night.

What’s the lowest low anyone has ever pushed a tribear?

So I know that you were not happy with me and my comments before but this is exactly what I was trying to convey. I was not trying to hurt your feelings or be unsupportive of your ventures. I was simply advising you of the harsh reality of nature. Nature does not care what mankind has described a region to be or that a general trend of warm temperatures is a sign of some sort of absolute minimum temperature. This type of thing happens and will continue to happen. I have (as well as many others) seen this occur several times in my lifetime and have come to the realization that Florida is not immune to intense arctic cold fronts, especially at the worst possible time. Planting tropical palm trees in Florida is always a risk as is any zone pushing. If you want to grow coconuts and similar palms, that’s great but they will never be viable long term in North Florida. And as you can see, even Central Florida is not a sure thing. At this point, there are people in South Florida who are worried because they have super tropical stuff like Areca Vestiaria and Cyrtostachys Renda in the ground. So they have been zone pushing too and it had been working out due to the moderate winters. But it had risk all along just like growing Coconuts and Adonidia in Jacksonville. Wrap your plants, add lights, move what you can indoors and hope for the best. But if your plants die, you will always be able to replace them. It just depends on whether you want to continue spending money on temporary plants.

I wrapped my coconut trunk with 5w heating cables and christmas lights. Wrapped it with burlap amd frost cloth and did end up building a frame. I run a 30,000 BTU heat thrower into the frame with hope that the heat rises through the crown. With anticipated winds, I'm gonna need lots of blocking of the winds from neighbor's homes. Still worth a try!

Took a bit of time, but this little Fiji palm is looking rather elegant as of late. It was acquired as B. microcarpa, but it keys out as B. seemannii. I’ll have to look at the next seed batch more closely. Any one else growing Balaka? Tim

A spot of pruning and turning around the old kerriodoxa was beaming. And the sallehana is starting to put out a new leaf and likes its new home!

We took a short walk through the community garden today and the exotic plants are doing well, the cold doesn't seem to have affected them... The big surprise, at least for us, is that the yucca gigantea has remained healthy at its core and is sprouting new shoots. It will survive the coldest winter here in a long time. Joy reigns supreme 🤗

Kind of hard to get a good photo of mine because I’ve intentionally planted a lot around it for protection, but here it is coping with its 3rd 40C+ degree day this year. Just starting to produce clean trunk and grow upwards after years of crawling.

Update almost a year later! They recovered beautifully. Hoping for another recovery after the freeze expected this weekend. Good luck to all bracing for the storm!! 🌴❤️

Veitchia vitiensis, one stunning smaller palm. A grove would be nice, but at least I have the one to oogle. Tim

Phoenicophorium borsigianum, a Seychelles palm. Tim

Hello ! Was lucky enough to explore the forests of Costa Rica : from altitude cloudy forest to dry savanes. They have it all, with amazing species. A special thanks to Jeff who gave me great advices and IDs. Some of you might know him.

Just saw it posted on the FB group and surprisingly, it wasn't mentioned here, yet. The newly described Attalea taam from the Colombian Amazon 🎉. That is a really cool looking trunk!! Hopefully some seeds will make it to Jeff eventually 🙃. Abstract: https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.739.1.5 Full article as PDF with pictures: https://phytotaxa.mapress.com/pt/article/view/phytotaxa.739.1.5/53627 Some more pointers in this FB posting: https://www.facebook.com/Palmsmithy/posts/really-pleased-to-have-been-involved-in-this-paper-providing-the-illustration-of/1679777533474493/

Kind of a nifty diminutive palm, although I don’t think it’s particularly cold hardy. Nice deep red crown shaft and colorful seeds. The mother plant is posing with the shovel, while the offspring are growing nearby. Tim

Oviedo. Glimmer of hope I suppose. 400 areca’s, 3 royals, 1 coconut, 3 huge triple adonidias. Small hedge tropicals look like cooked spinach. 🤷‍♂️

Hey all - I'm in New Smyrna Beach on the barrier island and have a lot of nice specimens in my yard so naturally am freaking out a bit, as many here are too. I soaked my grounds over 2 days time leading up to the event hoping that along with the coastal location might help mitigate damage. I put some C9 Christmas lights up around 3 of my palms...2 Ptychosperma elegans and 1 Archontophoenix cunninghamiana. And heating pads around the trunk of my Satakentia liukiuensis . I also brought as much potted material inside my home as possible.....palms, bromeliads, orchids, crotons, & misc. So there was still a lot outside and exposed. I have numerous Archontophoenix palms on the property, 2 Royals, a Dypsis cabadae, large Areca lutescens that was here when I bought the place 30 years ago, 3 large Coconuts planted back in 2017 from 30 gal pots, various Cycads including 2 very nice Queen Sagos, some Dypsis pembana - 2 still in pots and 1 planted, a nice Veitchia joannis, a very nice double trunk Dictyosperma album plus some in pots, a nice trio of very mature Foxtails that I planted back in '06, a nice Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, and some other odds and ends including many that are considered cold hardy so I wont mention those. I just came in from a walkabout on my property and am see damage on a few including the Coconuts, Satakentia, Royals, but the Archontophonix are actually looking stout at this time. Some off color but nothing like the others that are showing damage. I realize we won't know the extent of damage yet for a week or so but wanted to share what I'm seeing in my location. Cheers! My Satakentia: One of my 3 Coconuts. They are all the same size: My Veitchia joannis: My Bottle: My 3 Foxtails: My 2 Royals: My double trunk Dictyosperma album"

Licuala peltata var. sumawongii. Spectacular palm with huge leaves. Tim

Cyphosperma naboutiniense. Tim

It didn't look far on the map ! Curiosity has been killing this cat for quite some time so why not take a wee Sunday drive down to Halfway Creek ? I took the dust covers off my Miracle of Swedish Engineering, put on my Souvenir of Oodnadatta pure Irish Linen apron (made in China) grabbed a wondercloth (as seen on TV) gave it wipe down, chucked on some slap and hit the road. Me who only drives to the supermarket (0.8 klms) once per week at a maximum speed of 40 klms per hour, found her flustered little self facing 360 klms of freeway with a 110 kph speed limit. EEK. I am so glad I had a manicure the night before as my finger was very busy on that trip. All those Land Cruiser and Electric Buzzy Car drivers are so rude to sweet little matrons on the road and apparently quite envious of my stately Volvo. Of course I am too polite to mention the paupers who have to display their poverty by driving a Kia. (ugh) So I finally arrived at my destination, drove carefully up the little bush track (thanking providence that I have AWD) and found myself among the palms. Oooh la la. Rather than vulgarly announcing my presence, I took a little wander into the nearest greenhouse with my big handbag open in anticipation but was surprised by a nasty little camera hidden in there. Naturally it was all a mistake, I wasn't stealing any palms, I just put them in my bag for safe keeping. Richard found it wiser to believe me than to prosecute. He apologised for mistaking me for a common floraklept and I said sorry for pulling a switchblade, (hey it's dangerous for ladies out there) and we embarked on tour of the most amazing palm collection I have ever seen. I had to keep asking names as there were so many I have never seen before and a few I haven't even heard of. Even his Chamadoreas were huge. The he showed me another greenhouse the size of Grand Central Station, packed to the rafters with baby palms of every species know to man. Start saving up people as in a couple of years this part of the world will no longer retain the palm desert status it currently holds. But don't just wait till then, it is well worth a visit with a well padded wallet for purchasing a plethora of rare and gorgeous palms. You too can say pooh Pooh at those palm privileged people in Far North Qld. A big thank you to my host Richard for a better day out than any of my weddings, and thank you to those clever people in Gothenburg who thoughtfully included an enormous palm carrying area when designing their wonderful vehicles. I did not shop for palms, I pillaged ! What did I buy ? Well I will put up photos at a later date just to keep you hanging ! Peachy, palm purchaser and recent convert to motoring the proper way.

Good for you, Harry! They look super healthy now. You almost can’t walk through my landscape without seeing Archotophoenix. They’re everywhere. Nothing here seems to ever bother them either. Without them, I’d have WAY fewer palm species since they are the main shade producers. The low winter sun manages to get through though which is a plus.

Pinanga maculata. Tim