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I spoke with the person in charge of the French Guiana Botanical Garden in South America, at the Palmetum de Guiana. They explained that they have two Tahina spectabilis palms, one in the Palmetum garden and another in a private garden in Cayenne. In total, there are three Tahina palms in French Guiana. They also explained that they obtained the seeds from RPS Germany in 2008, and that many palm trees originated from those seeds. Those in Thailand also originated from the 2008 RPS sale. They also mentioned that there is a Tahina spectabilis in Venezuela. These are probably the only palm trees in South America. In our conversation, they also noted that there are Tahina palms in Martinique and Guadeloupe. With all this information, it is very likely that it could flower in the French Guiana garden in 2038, if it flowers within the minimum 30 years required for this highly sought-after palm. Below is a photo of the Tahina plant. Its trunk is thinner, which will likely accelerate its flowering. Hugo Aravena Chile

Update on this guy. It’s now spit into two trunks. Still lots of color. If officially named it “dypsis sp. quaman” until I get a better ID.

Chrysalidocarpus robustus. Monster!

Latania new frond beauty

Whoa Steve, that's way bigger than mine.. nice job. Mine's split as well & still has a lot of red fur on it. I'm going to repeat what I mentioned in an earlier thread here. The seeds came from the garden of Bill Austin when we visited in 2017. He was giving us a great tour & we stopped by what I recalled was a nice clumping palm, possibly Dypsis psammophila or something like it. Bill reaches down on the ground & scoops up a handful of seeds and says "Here, take these with you". As they grew, they looked nothing like the palm I remembered, so I thought I must have a mistaken memory. A couple months back I noticed that Seabreeze nursery was offering a new hybrid that they were calling the a "Sandy bear"; psammophila x leptichielos (or visa versa). A dead ringer, with one possible caveat: I don't remember any leptichielos in Bill's garden, although I could be wrong. But he did have several beautiful lastalliana growing nearby, that really caught my attention. Anyway, there's the story.. In the meantime, Dypsis sp. "Quaman" has a nice ring to it. 😁

A great chamaedorea variety to have this one, right at home on jungle floor in the understory of the garden. If you create the palms habitat in the garden they certainly reward you for that microclimate, and thus chamaedorea is right at home!

Enceph. Blue Arenarius flushing 7 leaves. This plant is as consistent as my green version. It always looks good too. I love the aqua color of Blue Arenarius. Super underrated. That being said, I tried True Blue and it didn’t go well. 👎🏻 (Stupid Lutescens won’t stop multiplying. It’s moving in on the Arenarius real estate 🤬) -dale

First three donated plants (all Sabal), already plugged in.

Sad as it is true well written words!

Not only are the variegated Japanese rhapis there are some beautiful green varieties. And the kobanishiki is a great example.

This weeks fix of Mother Natures gifts are as follows Christmas time!calyptrocalyx yumutumenezamia encephalartoidesdypsis forcifolia baringtonia proceraphilodendron davidsonii Licuala platydactyla anthurium effusilobumReady to go into the greenhouse

they are also resistant to light frost

These are ancient specimens at Breaker's in PB

I’m afraid it will be a while for my little one . I lost a small one down on my hill last year . A gopher decided to make a meal of it . Fortunately , gophers don’t come up here in my garden and when I found this one at a local nursery , I decided to give this palm another go. This time up here in my garden. Harry ‘This Syagrus Schizophylla got eaten not long after this photo was taken. This larger one , keeping Ernie company , will go somewhere up here in the garden.

Thank you for sharing . That is very nice looking, nice clean trunk with a massive canopy . Harry

I've been thinking and I believe I grew mine from seeds I got from RPS around 2016 after the Biennial in Thailand. But mine have yet to flower even though they are 10 years old. If they do I will set seeds aside for you. Their growth pattern, aside from the fused leaves, is not typical for a golden cane. They are definitely on the dwarfish side. I am nearing the end of a brutal marathon catch-up clean out of my gardens. Some haven't been maintained for the past 2-4 years. I am nearing the end but the summer heat has moved in and limited my ability to trim, mulch and fertilize. I will take photos when we are done and include the fused leaf lutescens.

Great news! Maybe these palms will contribute to the survival of this spectacular species in case the worst comes to pass in Madagascar. Hope there are more specimens to be found in S.A. My Tahina took a thrashing from Hurricane Ian and another hit from this past winter. I hope it will come back from both calamities but it appears to be so cold sensitive I worry it may be killed once the growing point emerges from the ground.

25 foot Old Man Palm at Ann Norton:

A quick update! Just looking stellar right now. Tim

An interesting and beautiful ecological interaction that we were able to observe during our last visit to the reserve, was this group of Pygmy fruit eating bats (Artibeus phaeotis), modifying and using a leaf of Sabinaria magnifica as their daytime roost. Sabinaria is possibly an important resource for this bat species in the area.

It’s a great palm and so easy to grow from seed. Your little ones would be from my group of 4 (3 males, 1 female) which pumps out about 300-400 seeds a year now. Germination is close to 100% when I’ve tried although I gifted all of the seed set this year.

wait a little longer my friend and I will send you all the seeds as promised

Alas, I wish global warming were a steady, perpetual process. But nature does not work this way but rather with extreme weather events, both cold and warm. The warmer winter gets in average, the freeziest can turn out a very rare and exceptional cold spell. And then all non believers will witness that (previously selected) cool tolerant palms do not care much about winter average but rather about winter lowest.

This is exactly, what I like in them most!

It will be taking place in my garden somewhere, in a spot where it can be seen, and iam quite confident it will stand out from the standard green excelsia! Richard

Caryota kirriwongensis

Dypsis faneva

The darker the light the better they get that deep metal green. They definitely dislike sun. Richard

As usual getting the collection growing! Richard

@kylecawazafla I’m usually right with you on ID but I’m not seeing Chelyocarpus here. I do see what you mean with some of the traits, but S yapa has those forked leaflets when young. To me it looks like it’s progressing towards being strongly costapalmate in the future whereas Chelyocarpus tends to have a flatter more Licuala type structure. I’m definitely not confident enough to say I’m certain but still leaning towards S yapa.

They look great in a tight group like that Tim. Must keep that in mind.

Monster is right! Makes that 5 gallon bucket look like a child’s beach pail. Harry

Chelyocarpus has deeply split in the middle which is not shown here in the subject palm. Therefore I am still saying it is Sabal Yapa

Ouch. It looks like that one went bye-bye, trunk of course should not be black (should be a mostly reddish color...have you dug down and checked the very bottom of the trunk, or looked at the root-area? If it's gone, and you get a replacement, or start one from seed, have you thought about making a berm of that nice sandy stuff and planting it high? I think that would give it a "choice" of where it wants to spread its roots, and hopefully will stay fairly high where it has that nice highly draining soil, so it can stay out of the bad stuff below. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Without a doubt, it's a palm tree worth having in the near future.

Yep , beat me to it . The slender trunks are what make these attractive , IMHO. Harry

Thanks for the update. Showing a bit of color and looking healthy. Harry

And from Memory seed is spherical like ambositrae (or weeping onilahensis) rather than pointed like the stiff leaf onilahensis found in habitat. As seedlings having grown your seed (C ambositrae x onilahensis F2 maybe) and the stiff leaf C onilahensis from RPS, they appear quite different at a young age too.

That is sensational Hugo!

I'm in major agreement in re a wide (and widening) basin for watering, not only for this species but for most. People have been conditioned to think that roots grow down, down, down to get water...without realizing that roots also need plentiful oxygen, and "down, down, down" in most soils is hypoxic/anoxic and thus a "no-grow" zone for roots (except in the most sandy/rocky "soil"), so they almost always go "out, out, out" and stay relatively close to the surface. Beccariophoenix alfredii is native to the immediate shores of the Mania River in central Madagascar, and thus, like the date palm and many other similar river/oasis dwellers, would have ready access to subterranean water. Beccariophoenix alfredii seems like it's definitely more drought tolerant than, say, Ravenea rivularis, but probably enjoys a similar natural environment for maximum growth and happiness. These principles are I think why you see Syagrus romanzoffiana looking great on some highly irrigated golf-courses in the low desert but most of them in general landscape situations look like torture victims because they're placed on pathetic drip-systems with the desert succulents. Same also for Bismarckia, not really in appearance, since it is a pretty tough customer, but in growth rate. Again, they get installed surrounded by Agave and Yucca. And the irrigation systems get geared toward that. Drip, drip, drip.

I had three of these growing in my courtyard . When grew into afternoon sun , they died . Mine just did not handle being exposed to direct sun at all. Harry

A good grower down here too. I had a few three footers some years ago...unfortunately they all became drought casualties just pre covid. Got a heap of new seedlings up now thanks to seed donations from Tim and Colin, thanks guys!

Chamaerops humilis var. argentea opening a new frond

An update, plants already brought there. A picture of the chief gardener next to the donated plants. And the previous happy owner...

Here’s a few photos of mine. It’s splitting as well. Still growing slowly.

Those F2 Transwoods are awesome!!

Chamaedorea tepejilote at the Botanical Garden of Naples It's very familiar to me! A donation of mine from a few years ago.