Livistona ID and growth rate difference

[Geoff]

Got two 1 gal seedlings in 1999 and gave them to a friend of mine in Simi Valley, California, who has a much nicer soil than I had at the time. ONe was labeled as Livistona rigida and the other as Livistona merrillii. Below are photos of both today. First note how much faster one grew than the other, and two, you think either are as they were identified. These are from one of the larger palm sellers in southern California and he has, in my personal experience, an extremely high rate of misidentified palms.

Livistona 'rigida'

Livistona 'merillii'

[Eric in Orlando]

The first one looks like a chinensis x decora hybrid. L. rigida has more dull green leaves like L. mariae. The 2nd looks like a L. saribus hybrid.

[Dave H]

The first one looks a lot like a decora to me...

[freakypalmguy]

1. decora

2. Does look saribus with that super heavy armament, but seems too stiff, hence Eric's hybrid call.

[Kailua_Krish]

  On 6/16/2010 at 4:30 PM, Eric in Orlando said:

The first one looks like a chinensis x decora hybrid. L. rigida has more dull green leaves like L. mariae. The 2nd looks like a L. saribus hybrid.

IMHO Eric is right. It isnt "ribbony" enough to be pure decora. All the ones I have seen are very finely split. Nice palm though.

-Krishna

[sarasota alex]

The first one I think is a L. drudei

[Tala]

agree w/ Eric on this, a friend has some decora X chinensis hybrids, they are fast and hold literally a "hundred" or so old fronds. You can sorta see the chinensis in them they way they droop and overall shape of laminas. Drudei is another good guess tho', their leaflets are not as split as decora, tough to say for sure without more details. Its def. not a rigida, nor has any rigida in it. The 2nd has saribus petioles/spines, and only 2 Livs in cultivation hold their leaflets together like that. But saribus usually has wider (joined) leaflets than whats in the pic, so again not 100% sure. Hopefully this contributes to the confusion ...

[Jonathan]

I'd say its almost certainly not drudei - looks too rigid and uptight!

I have no idea what else it might be though - dosn't really look like any of the east coast Australian species that I've seen.

Here are a couple of drudei near Townsville North Queensland.

Cheers,

Jonathan

[peachy]

Drudei are my favourite native species and I am going to go with Jonathan. (dont faint Jon) As for the other one, it has the deadly spines like a saribus but something else doesnt look quite right. Sometimes being able to get native species originating from their habitat has its advantages I guess.

Peachy

[Jonathan]

  On 6/18/2010 at 8:04 AM, peachy said:

Drudei are my favourite native species and I am going to go with Jonathan. (dont faint Jon) As for the other one, it has the deadly spines like a saribus but something else doesnt look quite right. Sometimes being able to get native species originating from their habitat has its advantages I guess.

Peachy

....and so I flail....