Trachycarpus...

[Tejastropicals]

I have 3 gal seedlings of Takil from rarepalmseeds. These were purchased in 2007, are you saying that they are not Takil but a form of Fortunei?

[kristof p]

Tejastropicals,

there are a few seedlings from 2005 but i doubt those ones saw the market. the first availeble seeds are from the end of 2007 so this should answer your question...

[Kostas]

Thank you very much for your replys!

Thanks a lot Kristof for all this info and the history of T. takil!

So,were the ''T. takil'' seeds and plants send back then in fact T. fortunei Nainital?Also,can you tell from my photos what T. fortunei variant i have?And maybe how pure they are?

I hope that too as it would very much interest me learning the positions they are planted!

At what trunk height do male T. fortunei begin flowering and at what females?

P.s. Thanks for the invitation to the EPS forum!I just registered!

P.s. 2:Does T. oreophilus hybridize with T. fortunei?I ask cause its my favourite Trachycarpus and want to grow one but only if id doesnt hybridize with fortunei...

Thank you very much in advance!

[kristof p]

yes, all seeds and plants from before the end of 07 are probably T. fortunei var "nani tal"...

i think your Trachycarpus are "regular" fortunei, there is much variation within fortunei and they all look a bit differant. as far as i know there is not a single fortunei variant with a valid name! (except T. wagnerianus, which should be called, T. fortunei var "wagnerianus") most of those fortunei variants have been named by people like you and me...

IMO the genus Trachycarpus is in need of some serieus research! like i already said, T. takil looks very much like T. manipur and T. oreophilus and it is possible that they are variants of T. takil.

i do think they could hybridize easily with eachother. the only hybrid that does not seem to be posible is a hybrid of T. fortunei/wagnerianus or other kidney shaped seed species with martianus(latisectus?). there are already some nice Trachycarpus hybrids like T. wagnerianus x T. nanus, i think this hybrid wil become very popular in the next few years...

i've seen flowering Trachycarpus fortunei with only 80cm of trunk so yours wil definitely flower.

i would definitely try a T. oreophilus or manipur, they are indeed very atractive palms but they are slow growers, i think it takes about 7years before T. oreophilus/manipur starts to make a trunk! if you dont want them to hybridize with your fortunei you can always cut the flowers of the fortunei

here's a picture of a weird Trachycarpus in my garden, this is one of my slowest palms, very strange because i bought it as a takil 3 years ago so it should be a fortunei sp nani tal but it is not, it is much to slow and the leaves look very differant. so far nobody knows what it is. some think it is "princeps green" ("sp nova") but again it is much to slow and looks differant to be a "princeps green"( "sp nova"). a hybrid of fortunei with wagnerianus is also posible but it lacks the wel know "hybrid vigour"...

[Kostas]

Thank you very much for your reply Kristof!

I am very happy to hear that they were just Nainital fortunei

Can you maybe tell to which of the atypic varieties mine belong?Do they seem like any kind of cross between the different fortunei varieties or are they typical for one of the ''varieties'' people have made to recognise them?

Surely this genus needs serious research!But its good that at least someone made up some names so that we can be talking for the same look T. fortunei with them!

As i said before,one of the two has old inflorescence bases from about 30-60cm trunk height but the other has none till now!I hope that they will flower again this year and that they are a pair as i would love to get my first seeds from MY palms! I plan on planting one of the resulting seedling between the parents so that it will grow a leaning trunk!

Its a shame that they hybridize so easily And unfortunately its not that easy as cutting a T. fortunei's flower as fortunei are common here and so i should cut the neighbor's inflorescences too However i like T. oreophilus that much that will try them and maybe once they start flowering,i will check a lone female if it sets viable seeds with only male fortunei arround...If it doesnt for 3-4 years,then it should be good to go!Otherwise,i will be fertilizing them artificially,like its done to produce hybrids,but in my case,so as to not get any hybrids!

Good luck with your mystery Trachycarpus!I hope you one day get to know what it is for sure!

Thank you very much in advance!

[Kostas]

Anyone?

Checking on my Trachycarpus,i have noticed that mine have fatter trunk than the Trachycarpus i see in Athens and that are generally planted and seen arround(well,mainly in Athens again but in cooler and wetter areas of Athens like Melissia too...).These have slim trunks that dont tapper at their base and not very big leaves while mine appear to have about 1,5 time the trunk diametre of these and also tapper at the ground,having a bigger base.The leaves also appear to be a bit less than 1,5times(judging simillar stage leaves as and also judging from the two oldest leaves of one of my 2 Trachy) the ones of the regular ones i see here.I dont *think* i hae seen any other Trachy with a tappering base here but i may well have missed it The span blade of my Trachys are about 1/2of a full circle and the undersides greyish.Now that you have some relative descriptioin from my part too that i can see them from all angles,could you maybe make somethingon the id of my plants?Could they be Nainitals?How can i rule out a var.Nainital-var. Chusan hybridization?

Thank you very much in advance!

[Kostas]

Anyone knowing something on that?

Thank you very much in advance!