Huge Palm, Cycad & Tropical Plant Sale

[Phil]

NOTE: page break. New posts from today on last page!

Germinating seeds of Jubaeopsis is not easy. Most people get under 20% results. Picking out the "eye" at the end of the seed can help. Some "crack" the seed before germinating. Regardless, when you do get germination you'll find that the first leaf emergences a month or two later. And, in two more years you'll have about 3 leaves. The plant below is in a 5g container and about six to seven years old.

In the time it took to grow the plant above, I think I could easily have produced a 15 foot Caryota or Archontophoenix.

Another shot:

And a bit closer view of the leaves:

You are looking at the most expensive 5g palm that I sell. It's sale price is $140. Yep, more than many of those wierd Dypsis which we currently sell at the 5g sale price of $52. I had about ten Jubaeopsis of this size and am down to just a few. Why the high price? It's because of the time required to get a 5g and the high start up costs of producing this product. Seeds are typically two or three dollars and most growers get one out of five to seven to germinate. Therefore, a grower's cost on the first leaf of one's that germinate can be $20 or more. If you ever find a 15g, prepare yourself for sticker shock. We don't have any presently. If we could get a lot better germination, obviously the cost would come down.

More later.

Phil

[BS Man about Palms]

Keep it up Phil!

For comparisons sake, heres a P. roebelinii X reclinata (or the other way) from my yard. The top and then you can see it behind the Chambeyronia.

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Bill indoor outhouses are pretty cheap nowadays...

[Phil]

This morning I think I'll talk about a palm that many people haven't seen and some perhaps haven't even heard of. If you've read through this thread, you can see I'm trying to expose people to different genera and plants. True, our Nursery offers as many or more Malagasy Palms than anywhere, but there's a whole world of palms out there and some people just keep thinking about one island off the African coast. In keeping with the motto that "Palms don't start and end in Madagascar", we'll take a look at a South American vegetable ivory palm: Phytelaphas aequatorialis. This is one of six dioecious species in the Phytelephas genus. This species is known as a vegetable ivory (tagua) producing palm. If you've ever seen or cut open one of these seeds, they look like ivory; hard and white. They are large and a peculiar shape; fun to hold and feel.

Phytelaphas aequatorialis is a single trunk. tall palm. It comes from Ecuador, high elevation. I know of multiple people attempting to grow it in So Cal. Although native to the equator area of the world, because of the high elevation (5000 ft) it does see some cold. Once I was on the equator in Ecuador at about 14,000 feet and it was unbelievable cold and windy. Don't think that altitude doesn't attenuate equatorial heat. This species is pinnate, tall and has very long leaves. It is quite rare in cultivation and in nurseries.

Phytelephas aequatorialis, 5g plant about 3 feet tall. Sorry, after 3 attempts at rotating this shot, I'm giving up. My computer must be laying on its side.

A closer look at the leaves. Note the grouping of the leaflets, characteristic of this species. The leaflets of the mature plant are enormous.

And the base of the plant:

Continued:

Phil

[Phil]

Here's an even closer shot of the leaves of Phytelephas aequatorialis, 5g size.

In my gallery, I have no good shots of a mature Phytelaphas aequatorialis. Like so many rare palm species, the Internet didn't help much either. Here's a shot from Wikipedia that shows the crown. Note the clusters of seeds:

There are other Phytelaphas. Below is a picture of P. seemanii from our gallery:

And here's a juvenile Pytelaphas macrocarpa:

Phil

[Phil]

So there's no withdrawal, here's a few shots of a Madagascar species. I began growing Dypsis mahajanga in the early 90's, even before John's book. It's a suckering Dypsis, has grey trunks/crown shaft, medium sized trunks of about 6 inches, and is reasonably tall to at least 20 feet. Small plants I sold in the 90's are now towering way overhead in some of my customer's yards. I'll be showing some of them in a future thread.

Dysis mahajanga. This is a 5g plant about 3 feet tall. It's a great landcape species and nice to have next to a pathway so you can slap the trunks as you pass.

A shot a bit closer to see the characteristics of the species:

A much closer picture showing how the leaflets are plumose, thin and grouped.

And finally a look at the base of this plant. You can see the gray color. You can see how it's just starting to sucker.

This is an easy species to grow in So Cal and will adapt to most coastal areas. The largest one I know of is in El Cajon hills and at least 20 feet tall. There are no pictures at my gallery or on the Net of this species large (that I could find). I do have some, but it would take some searching to find them. You'll see them some day.

I'll continue showing smaller plants for those who like seeing what juveniles look like. I hope that you can balance your Dypsis craze with other stuff.

Phil

[freakypalmguy]

More excellent shots Phil. If you don't mind, I'd like to put in a request. Syagrus ruschiana is one I am thinking of acquiring (your site says you have some in stock).

Matt

[Phil]

Matt,

Regarding Syagrus ruschiana, I don't have any photos right now. I'll see what I can do.

Now for a quick tour of a couple of species.

Calyptronoma rivalis is an interesting tall, rather thin single trunk palm from Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. I first heard of someone trying to grow this 25 years ago. Walt Frey (owner of a now defunct palm nursery named "Palms of the World" with Lynn Muir in Dana Point and long time member of the I.P.S.) told me he'd been growing one outdoors for years in an inland, colder area of Dana Point. I marveled at the thought of growing something different. Over the years we marketed this species hoping others would have success. Since that time I've seen quite a few growing in the Coastal area of So Cal. It is a medium speed grower and quite beautiful.

Calyptronoma rivalis in a 5g pot, 3 feet tall:

If one were to attempt to grow this species, I'd give it filtered light and let it work its way into the sun. Here's a bit closer shot of the plant above:

Holding the plant at an angle, you can see how the leaflets are quite thin when juvenile. It sort of reminds me of the Dypsis sp. "bef" that some of you might have seen before. But, it's not as droopy as that species.

And now for a closeup of the leaf itself.

More to follow.

Phil

[Phil]

A quick look at the base of the Calyptronoma rivalis from the last post. You can see the petioles are not armed and very smooth.

Below is a picture of a mature tree.

And this is a picture of a small plant put into the ground by Gary Michels in Pacific Beach, CA about 8 years ago. He planted it directly into full sun. This picture was taken about 2 years ago in March after a cold winter. You can see it's stressed but has attained some good size.

Phil

[palmislandRandy]

More please

[Phil]

Friends,

If you just joined us here, don't miss the last two posts on Calyptronoma rivularis.

Maryojejya is a Madagascar genus that is quite remarkable. Presently there are two species: Marojejya darinaii (named after Mardi Darian who many of you have heard of) and Marojejya insignis. Because of Mardi's reputation and availability of seeds, M. darianii job a jump start on insignis on the specialty palm market. But, there are important differences between the two. Marojejya darianii is taller, has a more "simple" leaf that can be enormous, grows natively at a lower elevation in a more swampy location, and has leaves that tend to look a little pinnate with age or maturity of the plant. Maryjejya insignis comes from a higher elevation (3000-4000 ft), looks quite similar as a juvenile plant compared to darianii, is shorter when mature, has definitely more pinnate-type leaves when mature, and has longer leaves.

Many have grown Marojejya in So Cal. I've been growing them at the nursery for at least 15 years. I posted some pictures of a plant from Mardi Darian's garden and also from the garden of Gregg Hamann on other posts. If one were to guess before trying, the M. insignis would seem to be the better choice. Below is a 5g Marajejya insignis. It has simple leaves and is about 2 feet tall. Look carefully as I compare it to it's brother, the M. darianii.

And here's a bit closer shot of Marojejya insignis:

And a closer view of the leaves:

Below is a picture of a 1g Marojejya darianii. Do you see how similar at this stage it appears when compared to the insignis? Green, simple, large and beautiful leaves.

If you go to the next post, you'll see differences of these two species as they get larger.

Phil

[Phil]

(continued)

Here's a picture of a good sized leaf of Marojejya darianii. You can see at this stage is in essentially entire, i.e. no pinnate leaflets. There's hardly any bare petiole without leaf attachment.

Below is a smaller plant, once again basically entire. There is a little bit of division in the terminal half of the leaf.

Here's a PACSOA photograph showing more division of the leaf. Certainly, strong wind could do this.

But now compare the above photos to the definitely more pinnate leaf of Marojejya insignis (PACSOA photo). The darianii does divide up somewhat on some trees, but not nearly to the degree that insignis does. The differences are obvious. Also note how the insignis has bare petiole at the base of the leaf.

I hope this shows you how, when young, the species are similar. But, when older, they are quite different. Thanks for reading.

Phil

[Phil]

Good Morning!

I've had my two cups of coffee and am ready to rock n roll. How about Cyphoephoenix? This is a genus that had two species: C. elegans and C. nucele. The former is from the NE part of New Caledonia, quite close to where the IPS visited on the Biennial 2000. C. nucele is from Lifou of the Loyalty Islands, just off the coast of N.C. We didn't see this one in the wild.

Cyphophoenix nucele is now being grown by some collectors. It is quite rare, but not to people who are avid collectors. In general, the two species of Cyphophoenix are more alike than different. Both are rather tall, thin palms with thin crown shafts. the trunks are about 6 inches in diameter. There is no big "bulge" of the crownshaft like you'd see with Rhopalostylis. A way to tell the mature trees apart is that crown shaft of Cyphophoenix nucele is more white than elegans.

Below we have some pictures of Cyphoephoenix nucele. This is a 2g plant about 18 inches tall.

Here's a better look at the leaves. It has wider leaflets than C. elegans of the same size.

And now a look at the base of this 2g plant.

Regarding culture, when young we grow them in filtered light. We have many sizes for sale. As they age, they can pierce through the canopy overhead into full sun. Certainly they see full sun in habitat. But, I wouldn't start them directly in full sun when young. They like good drainage and ample moisture. They have a growth rate of slow or a bit faster. They will grow in better areas of So Cal and would be a slam dunk in South Florida.

Continued:

Phil

[Phil]

Cyphophoenix continued:

From our Gallery, I'm going to show pictures of both Cyphophoenix elegans and nucele (pictured in last post). Rather than show all of one and then all of the other, I'm going to mix them up by size so you can easily compare one with the other.

Here's a small C. nucele in the ground. Compare it with the elegans right below.

Cyphophoenix elegans, small plant in the ground.

From the photos above, it appears the leaflets of the nucele are held at a lesser angle from the petiole and the leaflets of the elegans are a bit more "perpendicular" to the petiole. Also, the elegans leaflets appear longer and a bit more spaced. One other thing: look at the end of the leaf. The terminal lealets on the nucele above and the one on the last post are bigger and more "simple" appearing. Compare this to the rather ordinary and thin terminal leaflets of the elegans. This would help you tell the difference on a potted plant like the 2 gallon above.

Remember how I talked about the white color of the crown shaft of the nucele? Well, here's a picture of it and below the elegans.

Crown shaft C. nucele on a big bigger tree.

If you look at the C. elegans below, the crown shaft is green/brown with perhaps the slightest touch of silver.

Continued:

Phil

[Phil]

Cyphoenix (3rd post on this genus):

Below are a couple of shots of yet larger Cyphophoenix nucele:

You can see on the second shot above the development of the white color of the crown shaft.

Here's a few shots of Cyphophoenix elegans. The first one is quite thin trunked:

And one that is quite majestic:

I thank you for reading. I think now you can tell the difference between a large Cyphophoenix elegans and nucele. Maybe you'll be able to spot the difference in a potted smaller plant.

Take care and please do visit our nursery. Or, let us mail order you some plants. In these tough times, customers are very much appreciated. We'll take good care of you.

Phil

[quaman58]

Thanks again for the ongoing education Phil. Love the Cyphophoenix pictures; I purchased one of each (seedling) from you last year. They're both easy growers; the most distinctive feature of the C. nucele (to me anyway), is the bronze coloration of the leaves. Have really enjoyed this thread!

Bret

[Phil]

Brett,

Thanks for the feedback. I wish that, when I was younger, there was a thing like the Internet available. I remember the first time I even thought about seeing a Pritchardia other than through a book, I drove up to LA just to see a few 1g plants for sale. A fellow up there had collected seeds in HI, grew them, and was offering them for sale back in the 70's. I bought one for $35 (same price as they are today, 30 years later) and was thrilled. Nowadays one just parks himself by a computer, learns about the plants and fills his "shopping cart" with plants and two days later there at his doorstep. In the beginnings of Jungle Music, you wouldn not believe how many contacts I struggled to make and how many overseas letters I sent just to get a few seeds here and there.

This morning I'm going to do something different. We are going "Coning". Maybe you could say that we'll all be "Coneheads" for a morning. Cycads reproduce through reproductive parts called "cones". Cycads are dioecious, which means the group has separate male and female plants. You can't tell which sex you have until they cone. And, male and female cones are different. The characteristics of the cone are one of the main way taxonomists identify the species. This is the same as in palms, but there it's with flowers and flower parts. The male cones of cycads produce pollen which is distributed typically by endemic insects and transfer the pollen to the female cone. In domestic collections, this is usually done manually. Cones come is all shapes, sizes and colors.

So, there you have it. Let's go "Coning"

Here's the female cone of Ceratozamia robusta (by JO). You can tell Ceratozamia cones because they have prongs on their surface. Look closely and you'll see them.

Below is a picture of a female cone of Cycas micholitzii, a rare Asian species. It is forming seeds which are still green. Typical of many female Cycas cones, it looks like a "bad hair day". Males are more typical; females look like a bowl of spagheti or something close to that. And, when seeds are set, they can look like this; very random looking. This is a plant from our nursery.

Here's a female Cycas media, with tiny little seeds forming. Once again, bizzare looking.

Cycas male cones are more ordinary looking and typical of cycads in general. Here's a photo of a Cycas species from the island of Guam.

Continued.

Phil

[Phil]

Continued.

Below is the female cone of a rare species of Dioon. You will find that cones sometimes have attractive colors. Dioon females have a totally different appearance compared to othe types of cycads. The photo below is typical of a female Dioon.

Female cone Dioon caputoi:

Here is another female cone, Dioon merolae:

You could see that, without even seeing the leaves, you could identify this species by the appearance of the female cone of Dioon caputoi. BTW, at our nursery at any time, we have fifty to one hundred cycads in cone. If you interested, almost year round you can see male and remale merolae in cone.

And below is a cone of Dioon purposii (by JO). Is it a male or female? You tell me.

And here's a male cone of an unknown Dioon species from Mexico. It's a male. So, what was the last one?

Continued.

Phil

[Phil]

Continued.

And on to Encephalartos. Here's an emerging female cone of Encephalartos arenarius. On this one, you can sort of tell it's going to be a female from it's appearance. In general, female Encephalartos cones look like pineapples. Males look like corn cobs after you've eaten the corn.

And a male Encephalartos arenarius

Whether you're a cycad person or not, you have to marvel at the unique beauty of cycad cones. Below is a female cone of Encephalartos ferox that's been removed from the plant.

And a similarly removed male cone of Encephalartos ferox. Are you beginning to be able to tell the difference between a male a female Encephalartos cone? Sometimes it's a bit tricky, but in general one can see the sex.

Continued.

Phil

[Phil]

And here's an E. ferox cone still on the plant. Visitors to gardens love looking at the fire engine red of a female ferox cone. This one is sort of small. They can get much larger than this.

And here's the cone of Encephalartos gratus, a Central African species.

And a closeup of the same female cone:

I have to get ready to go up to the Nursery. Saturday is out biggest day for sales, so I must end off here. perhaps we'll do some more "coning" tomorrow, because there's a lot more I could show you with differenct colors and shapes. I hope you like this. It expands your horizons beyond just the palms.

Let me know.

Phil

[Phil]

Continued.

So, you might ask why am I showing cycad cones? I guess the answer would be to show you another thing that you normally would not see. As so many people on this list also like cycads, it's sort of for them as well. A very well known palm guy from this group just came by the Nursery yesterday. And, you know what he bought? Cycads, rare ones. Cycads mix so well with a palm garden that I'd estimate at least 50% of palm growers acquire a few cycads sooner or later.

Cycad cones are primative, bizarre appearing, colorful and interesting. Did you know that the pollen from the male cones has motile sperm? Yes, just like humans. And, did you know that many cycad seeds need to mature before they are ready to germinate. Yep, like humans again (9 month pregnancy). This resting period can be as short as a few weeks to as long as 9 months.

Now for more pics of cones. You can scan them quickly. I won't make a lot of comments on them.

Encephalartos kisambo, probably a male

Encephalartos lebomboensis, male cones. It's not unusual to get more than one male cone. There can be five to even ten sometimes.

And a female cone of Encephalartos lebomboensis. You can see the red seeds just peaking through.

Encephalartos pterogonas, two female cones. You can see the one one the left is a bit more mature and closer to dehiscing.

Continued,

Phil

[Phil]

Continued

Encephalartos, several female cones

Encephalartos trispinosus with female cones

And a trispinosus female cone further along and not far from dumping its seeds.

And a male Encephalartos villosus, multiple cones

Female villosus to follow

Phil

[Phil]

Continued

Here's the female Encephalartos villosus. This one is red. Very commonly I have this species cone and the females are more of a gold color.

Stangeria eriopus is a peculiar cycad in that it looks more like a fern than a cycad. Here's a picture of the plant itself. This has always been a good seller for us. I think people like the fact that it is so fern-like appearing, small in size and takes filtered light.

.

And, here's a picture of the Stangeria female cone. They are quite small and only make a handful of seeds.

And here's the male Stangeria

You should be getting good at telling males cones from females by now.

Continued.

Phil

[Phil]

Now on to Zamias. Zamia cremnophila is a very rare, exotic and sought-after tropical Zamia. Here's a picture of the leaves.

Female cone on the Z. cremnophila

And, the male cone

And, below is the new leaf of the extremely exotic Zamia dressleri:

How about the cones on these? Continue reading.

Phil

[freakypalmguy]

Awesome cone shots Phil. Cycads are and amazing species. Watching a newly emerging flush is always fascinating how fast the new foliage is produced and pushed upwards but cones are even more so. I recently saw a cone that appeared to be as large as the caudex of the plant itself. How do they do it?

Are you hand pollinating all your female cones (probably a silly question), and could you give a quick description of how you do this?

Thank you again,

Matt

[Phil]

Continued.

Female cone of Zamia dressleri. (make sure you go back one post to the the new leaf of this species):

And, for scientific purposes, here's a cross-section of a Zamia dressleri female cone with immature seeds. You can see how the seeds form before they fall away from the cone.

Below is the foliage of Zamia elegantissima

Female cone same

For more on Zamia elegantissima, continue reading

Phil

(some photos by RM)

[Phil]

Zamia elegantissima continued:

Female cones bulging with seeds

And beautiful red Zamia elegantissima seeds within the opened cone

Zamia inermis male cones. Beautiful white.

Below is the foliage of one of my favorites, Zamia ipetiensis, in a citrus pot at the nursery.

Continued.

Phil

[Phil]

I forgot that Matt gets up real early like me and snuck that post in up there. We do pollinate our cones when we have time and receptive females. I'll do the procedure of pollinating cones perhaps in a different post or thread.

(continued)

Now, the same Zamia ipetiensis showing a male cone at the nursery.

I think I'll finish our Coning Expedition with an unbelievable rare to cultivation Zamia from Columbia. It is Zamia manicata.

Here's a picture of the foliage.

This closeup of the leaflets shows you the distinguishing trait of this species. Can you see the "collars" at the base of each leaflet's stem? It's like a little ring of tissue.

And, here's a female cone of this rare species.

Zamia Manicata female:

This concludes this weekend's "Cone Related Activity", CRA. I guess this could also be "Cycad Related Activity". As always, I'll get back to palms.

Take care,

Phil

[doubravsky]

Thanks Phil, I love reading this article.. it is so interesting to see the cycads that have a different leaf structure than most. Some of them almost look like tree branches with leaves...

[BS Man about Palms]

I liked seeing that "Cycas micholitzii" female cone. They look VERY different than the male ones. Thanks again for all the great info, Phil!

[Phil]

Dave and Bill,

Thanks for the feedback. People many times see cycads but never get to look at the cones. And, the cones are an exciting part of the cycad mystique.

Now for a quck palm. At the onset, I'd like to say that I really don't know for sure what the following Dypsis is. It is from wild seed, and was thought to possibly be "D. canniculata". I'd appreciate feedback here. Tell me what you think. Many times, especially with we growers, seeds come in as "species" or "species nova" or something like that. So, they are just an "unknown species" as is this one. It's in a 5g, about 4 years old, and not too tall; perhaps 18 inches. It's definitely not a species reaching upwards. Like most of our 5g palms, the price is $52 presently. Is it worth it, who know's since I'm not sure what it is. But, some people love the mysteries.

Dypsis sp. unknown

Another shot:

I have a photo of the underside of the leaf/petiole and it shows a cream colored petiole (definitely not green). The underside of the leaflets are the same color as the dorsal color above. But, the photo is so out of focus that I just couldn't get up to posting it here.

Sorry for such a short posting, but I had to do a bunch of other things this morning.

Phil

[BS Man about Palms]

Looks like what I've seen as D. canniculata or D. oropedionis. Who knows? Merely another cool Dypsis!

[Phil]

Bill,

There you go. Another Dypsis "species". I just haven't had enough D. canniculata to know if it's the real thing.

Another topic: Hybrids. Hybridization is an interesting phenomena. I think there are a few motives for hybridization:

1. To see if it can be done: These hybridizers just take it as a challenge. As I've said before, there are guys out there who seem to live on ladders and take on the quest for yet another wierd hybrid. I admire them for this. Antagonists feel that it's "fooling around with mother nature". Others love it and seek it out. Who knows if the hybrid will be an interesting plant or not. I don't think that these growers really care what others think. They just want to do it.

2. A chance hybrid because two plants close to each other happen to set fruit: There is no real motive here. It just happened. Then such growers say "that's cool" and market the hybrid beause there are buyers. The Wodyetia X Veitchia got started this way in Queensland. A taller Veitchia dumped pollen on a Wodyetia below. The seeds gave a different plant (very beautiful) as you know. Many Chamaedorea hybrids were discovered just by chance.

3. Attempt to get a tougher or more cold hardy palm: I think the first hybrids of Butia and Syagrus were by chance, but currently growers hybridize this one on purpose. The idea is to get a more cold hardy Queen Palm. Prior to active hybridization, one found this hybrid by looking through a field of Butia and picking out the wierd ones. Presently people are crossing Butia with all sorts of Syagrus and other things. The Mule Palm that results is interesting and sought after. If you asked someone on this group if they wanted to buy a Butia capitata or a Queen Palms, 99% would say no. But, if you cross the two you hear, "Yea, do you have them!". You don't like the parents but the kid is gorgeous?

4. To speeed up a slow growing palm. Jubaea X Butia is an example of this. The hybrid will outgrow the Jubaea by leaps and bounds yet has a big thick trunk like the Jubaea.

5. To produce something that is downright shocking or unbelievably beautiful. This is a nurserman's dream. Cross Cyrtostachys renda with anything that is more cold hardy to get a red crownshafted palm. People keep trying on this one.

Historically the most sought after hybrid has been the Mule Palm. We grow a modest number of these. The most interesting cross is Butia X Syagrus with Butia being the seed bearer. The opposite cross gives a sort of wierd looking Queen (you know it's a Queen, but it's just sort of different looking).

Below are a batch of one gallon Butia X Syagrus. This photo was taken about 6 months ago and these plants are about 2 leaves further along in present time.

Here's another shot of the same palms.

Below is a picture of the same cross, but bigger. This plant is the same age, it was just repotted into a 5g about a year ago. You can see how much bigger it is from repotting. Plants can stall in a container. Just repotting them really speeds up some species. This is an example of that.

Below is a picture of the base of the trunk of the 5g above.

This hybrid is an example of making a palm that is more cold hardy that one of the parents and looks different. If any of you saw the post by Matt from Temecula on Discussing Palms Worldwide, I think he has one. It's a great addition for him because he sees significant winter cold. About 90% of Butia X Syagrus that I sell goes to people out of my area; typically colder parts of Texas, the Gulf States, Georgia, etc. To them this is another species to give that tropical look even though they are not in the tropics.

Phil

[Phil]

Continued.

Here's a few shots of mature Mule Palms.

The one below is in need of a little cleanup pruning.

Below is a picture by IPS member Mike Maxson, a long time friend of mine.

And here's one from PlantaPalm website.

Phil

[Phil]

Continued.

Just to make the comparison, here's a comparable aged Jubaea X Butia so you can tell it from the Mule Palm.

Here's another JXB

And here's a good one for you. This is a Queen seed bearer crossed with a Butia. Note how it's different than the previous Mule Palms.

Phil

[Phil]

This morning let's look at a palm that is a little more mundane, but few enthusiasts actually have one. It's Butia eriospatha. It is from southern Brasil. It has more green and less silver than Butia capitata. Brown colored wool covers the flower spathe. It is a good grower and quite cold hardy. For those in areas like Miami or coastal So Cal, you might scoff at Butias. But, for people in colder areas, they are sought after. Butia are very easy to grow.

Below is a 2g plant, height about 24 inches tall. Price is $28. You can see the color is different as compared to a B. capitata.

Here's a shot of the base:

This picture is of a juvenile Butia eriospatha about five or six feet tall in the ground. A capitata of this size in the sun would most definitely be showing some blue.

Below is a picture of a mature Butia eriospatha. It has a touch of blue, but less than capitata.

This is obviously a post to honor my committment to "not only show Madagascar and New Caledonian species".

Phil

[Phil]

I've got a few more minutes, so I want to talk about Coccothrinax. I love all the genera which have the term "thrinax" in their name...Coccothrinax, Trithrinax, Thrinax, etc. I've been intrigued with these palms for all of my palming career. When I first started my nursery 32 years ago, I sought after Coccothrinax seeds. When you find a tree in fruit, the seeds are plentiful; I mean perhaps thousands of seeds per flower. And, they clean up very easily. Germination is quite simple and reliable on fresh seeds.

Then begins the problem. They are slow! If you attempt to grow them from small seedlings outdoors, you'll have blades of grass for quite a while. Before I moved my nursery to Encinitas, I use to grow Coccothrinax outdoors. It took many years to get a decent one gallon plant; at least 4 years to get your first fan leaf. This is because, when young, they like heat. Heat speeds them up. If you greenhouse grow them or are over in the desert, they are much faster. And, they respond to being in the soil. A fellow once came by my nursery years ago (before we moved) and was looking for Cocothrinax. I asked him if he had any. He said "yes, they are this tall", holding his hand at his belt level. I said, "where did you get them that tall?". He said "From you, two years ago". It was then that I learned they like being in the ground and lots of heat.

Below is a picture of a 5g Coccothrinax argentea. It is about 30 to 36 inches tall. When grown, it is a modestly tall, single trunk fan palm with a nice crown of leaves and some silver on the back of the leaves. This species has nice webbing on the trunk.

And a slightly closer shot:

Below is a closer view of the back of Coccothrinax argentea's leaf. You can see the hint of silver.

Following is a juvenile tree in the ground.

With the next post I'll show you the back of the leaves of this same plant above and some big boys.

Continued.

Phil

[Phil]

Continued.

Below is the back of the leaf of the plant above, C. argentea. You'll note the silver color.

Here's another fairly good sized Coccothrinax argentea.

And yet another shot:

And a final shot of Coccothrinax argentea to show you that they do get tall. I wouldn't consider them a canopy former, but they aren't runts.

I hoped you liked these photos of a beautiful Caribbean species. If you're successfully growing Coccothrinax or have a favorite, tell us about it.

Phil

[MattyB]

Great thread Phil. Love all of the Coccothrinax. They take blazing sun and need very little water, even as small seedlings. I was able to only water them once a week this summer even when it was the hottest and they could probably have taken even less water. They just don't care how you treat them. They're even great in shade. But they'll yellow in winter if they don't get enough heat so sun is the best I've found.

[Phil]

MattyB,

Thanks for the feedback. I agree that Coccothrinax are underappeciated. For those of us in So Cal, I'm not sure you could plant too many. They are so cool.

As some of you might know, I have a real affinity for Pritchardia. The following plant is a "second generation" Pritchardia for us in So Cal. The seeds came from a mature P. minor owned by a member of this discussion group in San Diego. Yes, there are Pritchardia which seed for us in California. In fact, some of you might remember that the late Gunther Schwartz in Santa Barbara had a Pritchardia martii that seeded for years.

Pritchardia minor is a smaller Pritchardia. It's "small" in that the trunk is thin, the leaves are not overly large, and the overall height is rarely above 15 feet. Thus the name "minor". It is native to the Island of Kauai in the HI chain of islands. I've been to the habitat and palms are hidden here and there at higher elevation up to 4000 feet, but worth the trip. If you have a smaller area in the garden where you'd like to put a Pritchardia, this species might work. The leaves are quite small, perhaps two to three feet across This species is a medium speed grower and in San Diego do fine with strong filtered light. They also tolerate full sun.

Pritchardia minor 5g, about 3 feet tall:

A closer shot of the same plant:

And here's a closeup of the leaf. You'll note that, at this stage, it is not a "full circle" of a leaf. If you draw a circle and then divide this whole pie into three parts, one of these parts sort of mimics that shape of a younger Pritchardia minor leaf. This helps recognize it at this stage.

Continued with a few shots of a mature tree.

Phil