Brahea armata

[palmaddict]

I was clearing some vegetation and got a pretty good image of my oldest Brahea armata. It has over four feet of clear trunk and should flower soon. The color on these can vary some and I would call this "ice blue."

Patrick

[Kris]

Very beautiful B.A and keep this thread alive with that updates..

Love,

Kris

[Al in Kona]

Now that's a beauty! It beats most Bismarckias for an "icy blue" color. Now to see that in flower would simply be awesome. Anybody got a palm with a more intense color than this? If you do I know we'd all love to see it.

[freakypalmguy]

Now that's a beauty! It beats most Bismarckias for an "icy blue" color. Now to see that in flower would simply be awesome. Anybody got a palm with a more intense color than this? If you do I know we'd all love to see it.

Might be hard to find a nicer more intense color than that, I was looking closely in the picture trying to see if that baby was plugged in it's so darn bright

[Alicehunter2000]

I guess I'll be the first to shamelessly ask for seed from this beauty

[sonoranfans]

that is a fine example of brahea armata, very nice patrick. What I have noticed is that there are significant differences in the color of different palms and also differences in the color of a single palm under different lighting conditions. These differences in a single palm can be due to ambient light changes(light tends to be more blue at the edges of the day), and changes in the brightness of the light to the eye and to the camera. In the case where dappled shade w/ bright sun exists, there will be some over exposure leading to white areas where the sun is brightest. Here is a pic showing two of my bizzies, the "white" one in the back ground is actually not as "blue" as the one in the foreground, but the camera and the eyes aperature are too big to see the color difference. this is the most exaggerated example I have, but you get the idea. Both the eye and the camera will see the "overexposure".

Edited July 20, 2009 by sonoranfans

[sonoranfans]

now I take a pic of brahea armatas and a biz on a day with moisture in the air(moisture removes red, enhances blue), everything looks very blue to the eye and the camera. There are two armatas, a smaller, bluer, one up front and a greenish one behind it. You can see the color differential. By the way, the biz is the "whiter one" (that is actually the less blue one) from the first photo.

Edited July 20, 2009 by sonoranfans

[sonoranfans]

Then on a very dry day with some red light bias(atmosphere is like a prism when the sun hits at an angle), the same palms look dramatically more green. Now this is the other extreme, as green as they get given the ambient lighting extremes. And yet, this pic was only 1 week apart from the "blue" pic. The palms really look as they do in the photos, they change color to the eye and to the camera. This is all optical physics, if you see more light that has passed through the frond, it will be more green since chlorophyll is in all palm leaflets. If you see more reflected light, the wax on the surface of the palm determines the color(blue/white). I find the variations fascinating, it the best part of having blue palms, and armatas are the king of color variation with changes in ambient lighting. Shortly after the sun goes down, armatas, bizzies, and other high reflective palms also give a glow to the yard, not nearly as dark as it would be with just green palms. At that time they may be more blue or even grey.

[Alicehunter2000]

Very nice descriptions sonoranfans........I especially like the part where you describe light showing through the fronds showing more green and when its bouncing off the wax surface it shows more blue/white/grey.........very informative.

And the palms aren't bad either

[DoomsDave]

Yeah, armies are gloriously pale in the desert. Here, along the Cote d'La La, they're much less glowing, more gray than white.