Bully for Borassus

[Kumar]

Here are photos I took of some palms near my home early this morning, (I have deliberately not included coconut) -

1. Borassus flabellifer - extremely adaptable and a common sight. The one on the left is full of mature fruit, notorious for dropping without warning.

2. Bully for Borassus - occassionally a very robust, thicker trunked and large crowned sub-species comes up, these are usually slower growing and not self-cleaning. (This one has had its stem cleaned manually). Any suggestions ?

Close up of the leaf bases

3. P. sylvestris - these are the greenish variety, and can take root in any nook or cranny, sometimes more so than many Ficus species. However the deadly spines and a slow rate of growth means they are being removed from urban landscapes fast.

4. Caryota Urens - I hope this beautiful species becomes more popular worldwide.

5. D. lutescens (more solitary than clumping)

6. And one unusual fan palm - Livistonia rotundifolia?

7. I could not resist adding this large cycad (Encephalartos family perhaps?)

Edited June 6, 2010 by Kumar83

[Gileno Machado]

Hi Kumar,

Very nice photos, please keep them coming...

I believe the beautiful Cycad shown in your last picture is actually a Cycas circinalis, a native from India. I'm growing several of this species here, they'be been introduced into Brazil a long time ago and now they're often employed in landscape here. The orange cones they show when mature are very beautiful...

I like very much your native Borassus flabelifer too and I'm growing seedlings here of both subspecies (the regular ones and also the fat big ones). My seeds came from a good friend from Chennai, who often posts here in Palmtalk, called Kris Achar...also a great palm collector and admirer.

Welcome to Palmtalk and thanks for the photos again.

[Peter Pacific]

Kumar, I have been fortunate enough to receive seeds from Kris also and several tiny seedlings of Borassus flabellifer have germinated in my garden as well. These are beautiful palms, thank you for posting these pictures. Peter

[John in Andalucia]

Excellent photos, Kumar. I'm growing a few of Kris' Borassus seeds, as others have mentioned. His topics are legendary, although I think fatherhood is occupying a lot of his time these days! Thanks for posting, and great to have another member from the land of the Western Ghats. Do you ever go on field trips?

[peachy]

I have always admired borassus but I don't know if they would survive here or not so I remain a bully free zone. Thank you for the lovely photos and that cycad is glorious too.

Peachy

[Kumar]

People - Thank you for your kind words. I regret the photos are over exposed at many places.

Yes, I have been reading many of Kris' posts - usually liberally accompanied by some excellent photographs.

Incidentally, these photos are all from the east of India, in Calcutta, where I often spend a few days with my parents. P. Sylvestris in particular is unusually common there. Every time I visit them, I find a dozen seedlings growing from the corners of our garden which I have no option but to remove (I even found one growing among the exposed roots of one of my royals!).

[nomolos]

Great photos thanks for posting

[Kris]

Dear Kumar

Welcome to our forum,and thanks for those lovely visuals...

Thanks & Love,

kris