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Hello All, A little update, The red tomentum form Burretiokentia Hapala has seeded again this year. My green forms have not. I think there will be some seedlings of it at the Annual PACSOA show on the the and 8th of March 2026 at Mt Cootha botanic gardens. Maybe some seed as well, suggest be early in Saturday. Don Hodel in his Book , Palms of New Caledonia writes the red Tomentum form is the correct form, So what is the green form? Can anyone send me a green form seed to compare with the red tomentum form regards Colin

Resoaking won't hurt anything but might not be necessary. Removing the thin outer shell does speed things up though. 😊

Hello All, For some time i keep re reading the palms of New Caledonia book to identify this palm As the next persons growing a lot New Caledonian palms is about 800 ks away, ( there are few collectors that have a few species in Sydney) it is hard to visit them to compare collections. So over the years the Queenslanders and overseas visitors look at this palm, many a different answers. Now that it has flowered it should be easier to identify. The maroon tomentum is like velvet, everyone gives it a rub which removes it. It is very attractive palm however it does not like full sun as it emerges through the canopy. Will get a ladder and take pictures of the leaves next. Sorry about the quality of the photo, palmtalk only lets me load KB size files for some reason regards Colin

A few pics for mind and soul to ponder!

Get 'em in NOW!!

You should, cause they're beautiful!

New pic of clara...its maybe just slighty faster than armata..nice droopy leaves look even at this age... also few pics from my friend garden...

It’s a beautiful palm Colin. Save me a seedling when you grow them.

Couple of photos of my hapala for you Colin. Trunk is not self-cleaning yet but size and fuzz much like yours. Mine has not flowered but identical plants here produce the classic hapala dreadlocks.

As the sun fell lower in the sky, something red was lit up toward the east. What could it be? Grabbed the phone and went to see. A sight I have never witnessed before, the unveiling of a fresh inflorescence of Loxococcus rupicola -- and wow, was it ever RED! Below you can see what caught my eye. Closer -- evidently I was disturbing a pair of Madagascar geckos -- can you find them? Below you can see the formed seeds on another Loxococcus rupicola. I sometimes have trouble remembering the name of this palm. My trick is to start with Coca-cola and then it falls into place.

Patric Schafer is the man! Maybe follow the following thread as to what's going on with him.

Update: new pics taken this morning.

Hi Colin. I can’t help too much here other than to say my B hapala is turning out to have quite a lot of red tomentum. Latest photo I could find was from Sept 2024. It’s just about to produce clean trunk now which will be interesting to see what that looks like. I got this one in 2017 from the old Palms for Brisbane nursery as a seedling. I’m happy it has performed quite well in my climate, it was once accepted that they wouldn’t grow down here. Whatever your red form turns out to be it is an attractive palm. From the photos you’ve posted, to me the inflorescences and fruit seem to be a good match for hapala and similar to what I’ve seen on the ‘green forms’.

Not sure on the question you’re asking, do you mean the systemic fungicide, I apply it about every 3 weeks foliar spray. It’s more of a preventative measure which is what it’s all about.

Checked my baggie of Lanonia yunnanensis seeds yesterday and there are a LOT of sprouts. I didn't want to disturb them yet so I am not sure what the rate is, but it's clearly high based on how many I saw sprouted and how close together they were in the bag. Excellent seeds! Thanks Charway! Matt

It’s taken these ones about 25 years to flower, if I get any seeds I will most likely germinate a couple and give the rest away to a lucky palm talker!

Calm blue ocean, serenity before insanity! Richard

Haha OK @Jonathan, I will get one of Darold's plants! I may put it in the front yard to complement the neighbors'. We have a couple of spots that have opened up since our proteas keep outgrowing their spaces and/or falling over.

@Foggy Paul, check my listing in the "For sale" section,

I know! Our neighbors across the street have two, and despite being somewhat neglected both look pretty good. When I met @JasonD and told him where I live, he asked me if I was the one with the Howeas. Sadly no.

Haha yes, hence my interest in optimal siting. If I can keep it alive I will have 3 of the 4 LHI species, only missing the most obvious one. Maybe I can fit a forsteriana in somewhere…

Here's one growing in the water at Presa La Boca, Nuevo León, México. However, this is freshwater, not salt water.

Wow keep us apprised @Foggy Paul! I hear Lepidorrachis need to have a perfect home or they just croak.

Chambeyronia macrocarpa seeds take C about two years to ripen.

The infamous WodVeitchia. $120ea. 5gals TampaBay area. 3 these available in this size

It's bad up this way, too.

Clara is faster than armata here in San Francisco, California.

Minus 8 whoa that’s cold, sounds like freeze damage, as you know now you have to be aware of fungal infection after such a freeze and partial spear pull. Have a quick google and look at Agrifos it should come up, and then try to find another product with the same active ingredient worth a try. But go with your first remedy of copper or peroxide. Wort a shot better than losing your palm.

actually have some pics here..

Thanks for the compliments. I have found that my armatas are not much slower than the clara. I furthermore have calcarea blue and green forms ( formerly nitida) , brandegeei and aculeata. They all grow rather well and fast here.

Here are pics to show growth rate of one of my Brahea clara. This took 6 years ( first pic dec 2017 and second today Jan 2024). notice the palm circled and labeled 2 is Beccariophoenix alfredi. It has hardly grown at all.

This one has been in the ground for (I think) going on 3 years now from a 1 gal (again, I think..I should keep better records). It's sloowww. I just unwrapped it from its protection form the two 20 degree nights we just had. For speed comparison, the L. Decora to the left was planted at the same time and roughly the same size.

This year i have noticed they are flowering months apart, something is going on, still a mystery regards colin

Hello Moose, it did indeed survive, When you read Palms of new Caledonia it mentions red tomentum on the crownshaft but green stems. As you can see in the above pictures this form of Hapala? has red/brown tomentum all over. It has been 3 years since this original post. This year it seeded again, so i am including pictures of the Inflorescence of The red/brown tomentum form and the green , grey crownshaft form of Hapala The inflorescence of the red /brown form just hang down when seeding, the other form had the claw form of inflorescence. The only trouble i have with teh red/tomentum form is every visitor rubs teh stem to feel the velvet like tomentum and over the years the have rubbed a lot of it off. Maybe one day those 2 types will be separated officially into different forms regards Colin

Hello all A little update on this palm Seed pictures Regards Colin

Thank you for your pictures They look the same as mine... My thoughts are therefore that this form is a higher altitude form as it producing seed and the regular form does not so far. Both forms are roughly the same age. It is an attractive palm Regards Colin

Hello All I thought i would wait a while before replying. This palm is different to a normal Burretiokentia Hapala. My Hapala's have never seeded, this palm must be from a higher altitude as it is in cool part of the garden, i have 2 hapala's in hot and cool area's that never seed. The trunk is smaller on the Mystery palm. Pictures attached another pictures is leaf sheaf of the mystery palm beside a Hapala. Any thoughts????? regards colin

Gorgeous.Love that color. Thanks for sharing.

Burretiokentia wilsoniana Colin !

They show that tomentum like that here too. Will grab a photo later. I think those dreadlocks make the ID definitive.

Here we would call that Burretiokentia hapala. I think the inflorescence is the key but don't have personal experience of the others.