Livistona muelleri

[Tampa Scott]

The L.muelleri is one of my favorite Livistonas, but is seldom seen or spoken of. Is this Livistona hard to find or to common? Do people not like the look of the palm? Why...?

[nomolos]

slow growing? not sure

[Gallop]

I have a L muelleri X maria ,cool looking palm but it sure didn't like the cold this winter, spear pulled , looks like it's toast....

[BigBpalms]

I believe that not alot of people know about this palm- there is a nursery here in oviedo that has a whole field of them planted from 1-3 foot of trunk- the owner doesnt even advertise them- there arent any planted anywhere in public that i know of so maybe it hasnt caught on yet? They didnt miss a beat through this coldest of winters, strange and ive often wondered this myself. Beautiful purplish red new emergent leaf when young!

[Central Floridave]

From an untrained eye that looks a lot like a sabal palm. Maybe that is why???

[sarasota alex]

Almost every popular genus has only a couple of species that are common in cultivation. And the common ones are not always the best looking ones. If I was planting a Livistona now, it definitely wouldn't be a chinensis or a decora (not that they don't look good, just too common), but 99% of people would still make that common choice. I was going to plant a rotundifolia, but thinking twice now after the cold spell we had here.

As far as the growth rate in Florida, I go to the FTBG official gallery at palmguide.org. With every photo they have a date that the palm was planted and the date that the picture was taken. That's how I estimate. 15 year old muelleri there has about 6' of trunk, 25 year old about 12'.

[mike in kurtistown]

I planted one when I was in central Florida. I thought it looked great and it grew quite rapidly as a small palm before I moved. It's a stiff-leaved, not droopy-leaved, species. It's cold hardy and, in its native habitat, is said to grow in nutrient-poor, sandy soils. Perfect for central Florida or what? I thought this would be the nursery plant of the future for central Florida.

[mike in kurtistown]

Here is the plant a couple years before I moved.

[fiji jim]

I find these a great palm. Very tolerant of all conditions so far.

This one is now about 18 months older than the pic shows and is almost half as big again and showing trunk.

Much better than other Livistona in that the insects do not bother them and they stay neat and tidy.

Jim

[fiji jim]

Found another image of same palm taken 6 months ago.

[Walter John]

These are in Anderson Park, Townsville. Another under rated palm from the Livistona stable.

[TikiRick]

I love this palm! I planted one about two seasons ago and from my experience, they are quite slow to start. It is stiff and somewhat atypical of the Livistona species. The one at FTG rocks....this is why I was in search of this palm.

[Tampa Scott]

Here is a picture of my L. muelleri taken in April 2002. The palm now has 8' of trunk. The growth was pretty fast for a few years but has slowed the last few years when it started flowering. I am happy to see others growing this palm and I also hope others will give it a try.

[Dave H]

  On 2/18/2010 at 11:52 AM, Tampa Scott said:

Here is a picture of my L. muelleri taken in April 2002. The palm now has 8' of trunk. The growth was pretty fast for a few years but has slowed the last few years when it started flowering. I am happy to see others growing this palm and I also hope others will give it a try.

I really like this Livistona. Beautiful pics of it in flower, and a nice uniform shape kinda more of a formal fan palm look. I have a 15gal that I hope to plant some day...