Spiny palms

[bgl]

Some of these palms from the Seychelles are REALLY spiny! Here's a Deckenia nobilis

[bgl]

And a juvenile Verschaffeltia splendida

[bgl]

And Phoenicophorium borsigianum is probably the meanest of the lot...

[Zac in NC]

Yeah I knew we'd get back on track as soon as you joined over here, Bo. Thanks.

Zac

[Palmarum]

Any palm with spines is a friend of mine. More spines the better. Nothing like a palm that can defend itself.

Ryan

[Daryl]

I love my spiny palms too

Pigafetta elata...

My spiniest...up to 8" long needle sharp spines all over...note how I don't bother to clean the leaves!

Daryl

[PalmsZA]

Count me in!

So-far I have Bactris, V.splendida, Phoenicophorium, Pigafetta, Aiphanes, Plectocomia, Salacca, Rosheria and Astrocaryum.

Cheers

Dennis

[Trópico]

I've never thought I'd be into spiny palms myself but I found myself germinating a batch of about 50 seeds of Phoenicophorium borsigianum, "the meanest of the lot"!

So far about half of 'em are stretching up and down, but I still can safely handle them. Thanks a lot Gileno!

[bgl]

A few more of our less than friendly palms. First a Plectocomia elongata.

[bgl]

Salacca magnifica is an impressive palm, but the spiny base is pretty messy!

[bgl]

Looking up the trunk of a Bactris setulosa.

[Zac in NC]

Those are definitely not Touchy-feely palms.

Zac

[SubTropicRay]

I love em' too.  I've got Acrocomia, Aiphanes, Deckenia, Nephrosperma, Verschaffeltia, Salacca, Phoenicophorium, Roscheria, Bactris, Calamus, Astrocaryum and the former Gastrococos.

Ray

[Jeff Wilson]

I only have one super spiny palm - Acrocomia aculeata. It's a little guy. I love 'em.

Jeff

[Guest]

Bo & Daryl, amazing shots (as usual). I like them spiny palms.

[Walter John]

Anyone growing Aiphanes ?

This is a palm I'm thinking if trying. Here's a pic of one I saw for sale in Darwin.

[bgl]

Wal,

Yes, I have a few Aiphanes. Must be one of the spiniest palms there is. Even the leaflets have spines!! (As can be seen in your photo above). Here's a (not very good) photo of the trunk of an Aiphanes aculeata.

Bo

[Kom Thai Palm]

bgl, I like your nice spiny palms  :laugh:

and this is one

[bgl]

Redvdox, what kind of palm is that?

A few more: Metroxylon warburgii has pretty sizeable spines, but they are actually relatively soft and harmless.

[bgl]

Bactris gasipaes is another palm with spines covering the entire trunk (as opposed to the spiny palms from the Seychelles which lose most of their spines when they get taller)

[bgl]

Calamus palms make me think of the old expression "be careful what you ask for, you may just get it". We all want our palms to be vigorous growers, but when it comes to the genus Calamus that's really good news/bad news. The good news being that it's always nice to see healthy and strong palms. The bad news being that a healthy Calamus will take over the immediate neighborhood, and there isn't much you can do about it! This Calamus inermis was planted in Nov 1999 from a 4 inch container (i.e. it was TINY). I planted it next to a real big Ohi'a tree so it would have something to climb on. A year later I decided to cut down the Ohi'a tree (it was leaning at a 45 degree angle and I was concerned it was going to fall). The Calamus was already about 6-7 ft tall, and I was NOT about to touch it! It found its way over to a different Ohi'a tree, about 15 ft away, and is now a massive, multi-stemmed palm that's already halfway up (40 ft or so) this other Ohi'a tree.

[Zac in NC]

That palm is obviously misnamed. If that is unarmed, I don't wanna see an armed Calamus. LOL So Bo, you have Acrocomia mexicana( if you still believe it is a species and not a variety)?

Zac

[Walter John]

You could have several specimens of each of these spiny species, throw in some Date palms and a few Livistonas, have these planted around home and man let's see the burglars have a go then.

I honestly am afraid to plant any spinies as I have grandkids and other family member little ones who visit and love mucking around my mini jungle. I've already had an injury from one of them running into a low bizzie frond leaflet. If I had the spinies, I couldn't allow them to run thru the jungle, creedence style.

I do have a Phoenicophorium and a Verschaffeltia though, warnings do go out for these two. More to protect the plant than the child perhaps

Love the spiny palms, a true jungle look.

[Zac in NC]

Yes Wal, woe be to those who try to sneak into a palm freaks yard, especially with the spiny type palms. I don't have any spiny palms in my garden either Wal, but only because I can't grow them in my climate, and like hell I am going to bring palms liek that inside to winter over.

Zac

[Walter John]

(Zac in NC @ Jun. 21 2006,16:51)

QUOTE

Yes Wal, woe be to those who try to sneak into a palm freaks yard, especially with the spiny type palms. I don't have any spiny palms in my garden either Wal, but only because I can't grow them in my climate, and like hell I am going to bring palms liek that inside to winter over.

Zac

Here's all you need Zac

[Zac in NC]

Yep I need one of those, but I imagine Bo needs it worse than I do.

Zac

[Matt in SD]

Spiny palms are cool unless their in my garden.  I took a Phoenix roebelinii spine into the bone on my arm that took a doctor about 30 minutes to pry out.  I think it pinned some muscles/tendons to the bone because I couldn't move all my fingers until it was out.  Taken plenty of hits to the forehead while pruning my Phoenix canariensis.  And even sliced my hands pretty good pruning Washingtonias.  To me, none of these three palms mentioned are worth the hazard.  Maybe if I paid someone else to prune them.  But I guess some of the more tropical crownshafted palms Bo is showing, which probably don't need any pruning, would be OK (if I didn't have any kids).

Matt

[mikmar]

I guess you don't have much trouble with the deer messing with them or anything else for that matter. ???

[bgl]

Matt,

so the choice seems simple enough: spiny palms or kids....

Here's the same Bactris gasipaes (see above) but looking up the trunk, which must be approaching 40 ft/12 m now. Planted in 1996 from a 3G pot (=about 3-4 ft/1 m. tall at the time).

[bgl]

And here's a better view of the Calamus inermis above. The palm pretty much takes up the full view. It was planted next to the Ohi'a tree that can be seen in the lower lefthand corner, but then after I cut down the tree the Calamus began to migrate over to the Ohi'a tree on the right, about 15 ft away and it's already halfway up that tree (that part is not visible in the photo). And believe it or not, there's a good size (15-18 ft tall, or so) Carpoxylon in there, just a little bit to the right of the center in the photo. I think I'll need to rescue it pretty soon. Wal's suit would be handy....

[bgl]

A few more spiny ones! Bactris grayumi has an interesting arrangement with its spines in the center on the undersides of the fronds.

[bgl]

And Acanthophoenix rubra has the opposite, and rather unusual, arrangement: spines on top the fronds!

[bgl]

Crownshaft of Acanthophoenix rubra. Once it begins to form a trunk, this will be clean (no spines).

[Kamipalms]

Calamus caryotoides.. and its only a bubby.

[Al in Kona]

As for most of the spiny trunk palms I'll let you guys grow them and I'll just enjoy them (from a distance) when visiting your gardens or seeing your posted photos of them here!  Well, actually I do have a few - how can you avoid not wanting at least one of these two palms, Salacca magnifica and Bactris militaris?  I also have a Bactris gasipaes but it is the spineless form.  Of course I have lots of palms with armed petioles.  

However, if one avoided planting anything at all that had spines, thorns, hooks, etc., your tropical garden and palms in particular, would be quite limited indeed.  So I do still struggle with weeding, pruning, trimming, or simply getting too close to many of the palms and especially cycads for example (ever try weeding around the base of an Encephalartos horridus or E. ferox?).  Then too there are all those other beautiful ornamentals that accompany our palm gardens and many of them can be armed in some form also.

[Guest]

Here is;

Salacca wallichiana;

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph.....src=ph

Calamus erectus

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph.....src=ph

[Guest]

Here is Calamus latifolius (syn. inermis);

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph.....src=ph

[bruno]

Is the calamus the rattan palm?

Another stupid question for all the knowledgeable people you are: why do palms need to have such defenses? Against what? Monkeys eating the fruits? Snakes climbing up? Childen to stay away?

[Carlo Morici]

(bruno @ Jun. 27 2006,16:13)

QUOTE

Another stupid question for all the knowledgeable people you are: why do palms need to have such defenses? Against what? Monkeys eating the fruits? Snakes climbing up? Childen to stay away?

Bruno,

Your stupid question is anything but stupid.

Palm spines can occur on almost any part of the palm.. Spines can “happen” on petiole margins  (i.e.Washingtonia, Borassus), on the free parts of a fibrous leafsheat (i.e. Trithirinax, Zombia).  They can be modified leaflets (think in the acantophylls of the genus Phoenix, or the climbing hooks in Desmoncus), they can be projections of the trunk “skin” (like in Acrocomia). My favourites are the spines on the trunks of Cryosophila which are adventitious roots converted into spines.

Their purpose is chiefly  defence against predators. Some exceptions off the top of my mind are:

- The climbing hook-spines of rattans.

- The ant-sheltering spines of some rattans (Korthalsia Calamus, Daemonorops) that have nterlocking spine combs forming horizontal galleries around the leaf sheath

- The non-stinging spines of Trachycarpus or Metroxylon which are possibly vestigial.

The environments richer in spiny palms are lowland seasonal ecosystems. The poorest are humid high elevation forests and island ecosystems. In 2004 I published a study in Spanish on Island Palms

Link:  http://webpages.ull.es/users/jmferpal/Palmeras%20e%20Islas%20Libro%20Cap.%2003.pdf

As a brief overview, I surveyed the distribution of spines in palms and I found out that island palm floras are generally non spiny. Almost no spiny palm occurs on the pacific islands. Exceptions are some Calamus, Licuala , Pritchardiopsis and Metroxylon, which general have small or flexible non-harmful spines. Madagascar is also basically non-spiny: the radiation in Dypsis produced 140 spineless species.

Island palms are generally unarmed because their natural environments lack predators. “Spiny islands” are the continental islands, such as the Larger Antilles or the ones on the Sundashelf. They do have spiny palms because they host or hosted predators. Continental fragments that hosted giant turtles in the recent past DO have spiny palm floras. So, Seychelles have 5 armed species out of 6 native palms and the Mascarene Islands are a spiny place too. A hard-to-explain exception is Phoenix canariensis which is too spiny to live on the oceanic Canary Islands, that host a chiefly unarmed flora.

Carlo

[DoomsDave]

Ah, bo and the rest:

Those palms will make a perfect addition to Cruella's Nudist Colony for the Blind.

Hmm.

Here's a Trithinax.

Note how our very own elHoagie stands close, to show his love, but not TOO close . . .

dave

P.C. Pic taken in feb. 2006.