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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.

If ever there was a flower that looks alien, this one male flower surely would be in the running. I do get viable seeds now then. One very tough palm tree the densifolia.

Mine has grown a lot since pictured above and almost all of the red brown tomentum has gone! There is just a little on the upper crownshaft. I have a few vieillardiis which are like teddy bears so maybe there's some of that in yours Colin?

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

A few pics for mind and soul to ponder!

You should, cause they're beautiful!

It’s still a wallichia densiflora to me, life is confusing enough for me, and they go along it changing names just to confuse me even more! It would live for you in sunny warm Melbourne, but you would need to plant it on your roof they take up a bit space width wise!

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

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

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’.

La Boca is the state of Nuevo Leon's main dam. We had a very bad drought in 2022-2023 that almost completely made the dam dry. That palm is most likely a volunteer. However, the dam is normally full or almost full most of the time. Tropical Storm Alberto in 2024 ended the drought and filled La Boca more than 100% of its capacity. I also asked myself how it still stands.

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.

Get 'em in NOW!!

I think this dypsis louvelli classifys as a bit of colour!

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.

A lovely trio of tenellas one boy and two girls, both hand pollinated and with a bit of luck a few mature seeds next season.

So I had soaked my Pseudophoenix sargentii seeds for two days, but while doing further research I now realize that I had not cracked the shell. Do I just plant the seeds regardless or should I re-soak the seeds for another two days now that the shells are taken off? Thanks!

Tonight I confirmed for the first time that my property is officially zone 9B. Minimum temperature was -2 C / 28 F. The coldest night so far, accompanied by light frost. Thankfully I have covered most sensitive plants. Frost only at ground level, so it hasn't affected taller plants.

B dulcis has been much better with 20 seedling so far from 100 seeds.

Hey, interesting thing I found when searching through iNaturalist for extreme palm trees - a report of a wild Chamaerops humilis growing in the dredged sediment of the Columbia River shipping channel.

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!

American Robins eat Chamaedorea seeds once they start changing color.

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.

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.

Sorry for jacking this thread folks! So I could not find any with more than a single split unless I’m missing something?

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

Multipinnata and Debaoensis are both tripinnately compund. Superficially they look similar due to having side branches that have side branches with hands of leaves from there. Micholitzii and Bifida are ones where the leaves split directly off the rachis. This plant here was ID'd by Sim Lav as a Multipinnata:

C. multipinnata (at least pure ones) don’t have side fronds off the main fronds. C. multipinnata has leaflets coming off the main frond that split multiple times. With the differing fronds it’s most likely a C. debaoensis X C. multipinnata hybrid

I hadn't heard about the leaflet size as an ID feature...so of course I had to go look at a couple of my unidentified hybrids. This species (and group of species) are so weird. Here's three different fronds...all from the same plant: Oldest leaf - flushed during a bad scale infestation and very narrow leaflets: New flush with no scale - dramatically shorter and wider leaflets: And a big 3rd leaf from an offset growing out of the side of the above plant (still attached). This looks more Multipinnata than the others with a different side branch attachment angle (more plumose): If someone showed me all three photos separately, I'd think they were from 3 different plants!

Plants are confused and flushing with the unusal warm winter I’m having.

Nice young Zamia standelyi new leaf flush!

Here you go

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.

Just an update on this dude. Growing like a champ, starting to put out pretty big fronds, maybe 2 ft across. Starting to grow vertical a bit as well

Hopefully no more real cold. It looks pretty good honestly, the outer fronds got crispy but everything inside of those looked great. It's pushing a nice spear,firm. Going to wait a couple weeks and give it some fertilizer. Feels good to work outside

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.

I’ve had the privilege of germinating these seeds for a good friend that resides up north, It’s a newly named species, Dypsis mijoroana, I know of 3 other mature trees in Hawaii, I’ll give regular updates on this thread

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

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.