What are the Rarest Palms?

[ErikSJI]

Butia X cocos of course. Muhahahahahahaah

[cfkingfish]

Here is a link to T. ferox, they are not my pictures, so I will not upload them.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Tectiphiala/ferox.html

[sarasota alex]

How about Syagrus lilliputiana? Apart from Lorenzi's adult specimen, 20 cm tall, I've never seen or heard of another one in cultivation...and the species was once considered to be extinct in habitat...

According to the Kew Checklist, it's now merged under S. graminifolia

I guess Kew Checklist is not correct in this case and this confusion needs to be updated. These are two completely different species and according to Lorenzi & Noblick's new book, Syagrus lilliputiana is native to extreme west Mato Grosso do Sul state, near the border with Paraguay, and Syagrus graminifolia, as shown by Kelen, occurs in the extreme east of Goiás state, near the town of Cristalina, more than 1000 Km away from each other's habitat. The two palms look totally different too...We've seen both species cultivated at the Plantarum Institute in São Paulo during the IPS Biennial Post tour.

Thanks for the clarification! Unfortunately I've never seen either species, so I have to go by what I find on the web. So info like this really helps.

[JD in the OC]

pogobob,

Jeff Marcus has a few in his garden that are trunking. So, yours isn't he only in North America

[pogobob]

pogobob,

Jeff Marcus has a few in his garden that are trunking. So, yours isn't he only in North America

Last I heard Jeff still hasn't moved his palms from Hawaii Coincidently that is where I got my palm

[Lowey]

Here is a link to T. ferox, they are not my pictures, so I will not upload them.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Tectiphiala/ferox.html

Wow, that is spiky but a great looking palm.

[Wanderanwills]

In all honesty, their are numerous palms that are extremely rare. Too many, and many still not discovered in the wild.

We as collectors and palm hobbists need to make sure that those rare palms we obtain are shared with others, but more importantly end up in Botanic Gardens and public gardens that will be enjoyed for future generations.

How often is it the case where legends (and we all know some) spend a lifetime collecting and gathering palms (or in fact any group of plants) a wealth of knowledge and sadly they pass away of old age and their collections are sold off for pennys or neglected to no return.

If you obtain rare or unusual plants please make sure they are shared around especially to Botanic Gardens.

Regards

Stephen

[Dr. George]

pogobob,

Jeff Marcus has a few in his garden that are trunking. So, yours isn't he only in North America

Last I heard Jeff still hasn't moved his palms from Hawaii Coincidently that is where I got my palm

JD - Technically, Pogobob is correct - Hawaii is the only state in the US that is not geologically in North America.

(Check the Topography subsection of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii> )

gmp

[Ken Johnson]

In all honesty, their are numerous palms that are extremely rare. Too many, and many still not discovered in the wild.

We as collectors and palm hobbists need to make sure that those rare palms we obtain are shared with others, but more importantly end up in Botanic Gardens and public gardens that will be enjoyed for future generations.

How often is it the case where legends (and we all know some) spend a lifetime collecting and gathering palms (or in fact any group of plants) a wealth of knowledge and sadly they pass away of old age and their collections are sold off for pennys or neglected to no return.

If you obtain rare or unusual plants please make sure they are shared around especially to Botanic Gardens.

Regards

Stephen

That's where I come in. I have "saved" many rare palms that are now in thier second homes. Usually way better than thier first home.

Anyone ever seen a Tahina transplanted? That would be a rare transplant!

[TropicPalms7]

what about the Medemia argun ? I found out about this palm a few years back (i know some of you many of years) I have been looking for this palm for years due to how rare it is and how it looks and what palms it is related to... anyway does anyone know where to get one or anything about these palms since we are on this subject? thanks in advance -Justin in VB

[Kev Spence]

Interesting topic and many palms I have never heard of listed in this thread.......may I just add Juania australis as being fairly rare.

There is also Trachycarpus nanus x T. wagnerianus doing the rounds here in the UK.

Edited September 3, 2010 by Kev Spence

[palmsOrl]

Kev., you mentioned your Juania australias so casually, that looks great!!

[velutina]

This is a photo of an undescribed Washingtonia sp. It has no spines and grows extremely slowly and only at high elevations. They are found near Ixnui, Guatemala at about 2000m elevation. Since their discovery in 1994, only one of the trees has flowered, but failed to produce viable seeds. Only 23 plants have been found.

Edited September 4, 2010 by velutina

[palmsOrl]

I've never heard of those Guatemala washies, from a distance they look identical to robusta. I will see what info I can dig up on these, obscure species fascinate me.

[sarasota alex]

Purebred Washingtonias and Phoenix' are quickly becoming rare

[amazondk]

Barcella odora is pretty rare I think. I am going to go try and collect some seeds next weekend some 350 kms north of Manaus on the highway to Venezuela. It is sort of a special mission to help someone overseas. If successful I will post some pictures when I get back. I know exactly where the trees are so they will not be hard to find. The question is if they will have seeds or not.

dk

[Tampa Scott]

How about a variegated Butiagrus for being rare. Hard to get really good pictures of the variegation. Palm only puts out 3 fronds per year. The newest (3rd for this year) frond has the best variegation yet. Here are a few pics taken in July 2010. Palm is 5 yrs old. Slow groing and can not take much sun.

[Tampa Scott]

forgot this one...

[XYZ]

This is a photo of an undescribed Washingtonia sp. It has no spines and grows extremely slowly and only at high elevations. They are found near Ixnui, Guatemala at about 2000m elevation. Since their discovery in 1994, only one of the trees has flowered, but failed to produce viable seeds. Only 23 plants have been found.

Velutina:

What to say? For a variety of phytogeographic reasons that I won't belabor here, one would be immediately disinclined to buy into a native population of Washingtonia (a palm genus nominally restricted to the Nearctic) disjunct from the other wild population by >3000 km airline/20 degrees latitude and located in northern Nuclear Central America. Beyond that, I have never heard of, nor can find any reference to a town or village called Ixnui in Guatemala. Not to say that one doesn't exist, but there you go.

While there have been a significant number of new palms reported from Guatemala over the past two decades - both previously unreported genera/species for the country (like Prestoea sp. and Reinhardtia latisecta) and novel taxa (a couple of Geonoma and several Chamaedorea spp.) - I have never heard/read about this report before. FYI, Washington hybrids are abundant throughout the country at all elevations and, like Dypsis lutescens and Phoenix roebelinii, have escaped cultivation and become naturalized in some regions. I would, however, be interested in reading the origin of this report and what are the morphological characteristics that distinguish this species from the other two. A lack of spines on the petioles suggests that it is a Sabal or one of the inermous Brahea spp, not a Washingtonia. Beyond that, you should also be aware that the United Fruit Co. introduced many exotic palms to Guatemala in the early 20th century and many are still to be found kicking around the country...as an example, there is an olds & very massive Rhopalostylis growing at the end of my street and until recently there were also some very tall old Ceroxylon sp. and Latania around here as well.

As to the topic of this post...the enigmatic palmlet Chamaedorea piscifolia (central Costa Rica) may or may not be hanging on in miniscule pockets or may already be extinct...I suspect that one or two may have made it to cultivation in Hawaii way back when, but not sure whether it remains in cultivation. Best case is probably a handful of undiscovered wild individuals that may or not be reproducing (Chams are dioecious). While I don't want to minimize the threats that some Mascarene and Malesian palms face, there are almost certainly as many microendemic, critically-threatened Neotropical palms (most very poorly-known)as there are in the Old World. Sadly, most are unsuitable for cultivation by novices or BGs located outside the tropics and may be going (or have already gone)down the path of the Dodo.

As to another species mentioned in this thread; I have a handful of vigorous F1 Calptrocalyx sp. "Kainlas" (2008) growing here from seed set in a private collection located in NQ. so that West Papuan species clearly is now established in cultivation in Oz.

Cheers,

Jay

[bgl]

Jay,

When Ken Foster had to leave the Big Island (to go to Houston for medical treatments) he gave me a Chamaedorea piscifolia. That was in September 2001 and it was in a 3G pot. It was the only one he had and the seed came from Don Hodel a few years before that. Sad to say I was unable to keep it alive and it gradually withered away (it had several stems), and ultimately died. I don't know of any others in Hawaii, which is not to say that none exist here.

Bo-Göran

[XYZ]

Jay,

When Ken Foster had to leave the Big Island (to go to Houston for medical treatments) he gave me a Chamaedorea piscifolia. That was in September 2001 and it was in a 3G pot. It was the only one he had and the seed came from Don Hodel a few years before that. Sad to say I was unable to keep it alive and it gradually withered away (it had several stems), and ultimately died. I don't know of any others in Hawaii, which is not to say that none exist here.

Bo-Göran

Bo:

Interesting. I had heard vague rumors that Hodel has released some seed to a few collectors some years back. I believe that C. piscifolia was described as a solitary palm and its sib species are all also presumed to be solitary. Is it possible that there were several palms planted in one pot that all crashed about the same time? Alternately, we still don't know much about this species...perhaps it is also colonial on rare occasion. A local biologist who did undergraduate work on some native palms in the eastern lowlands about ten years back told me that, amongst a number of green-leaf C. tuerckheimii that she collected for her thesis, she found one that was definitely colonial with "many stems". This individual is completely reliable and was the first person to positively document the occurrence of the mottled leaf/lowland form (commonly called the Veracruz form in cultivation) of C. tuerckheimii in Guatemala. I have queried her on a number of occasions as to whether she perhaps found a colony of Reinhardtia simplex or perhaps an undescribed species, but she seems quite confident that it was otherwise identical to the green tuercks that she vouchered for the area. Who knows?

Based on similar cases, I strongly suspect that there may be one or more undiscovered/undisclosed satellite populations other than the type locality but that C. piscifolia are, no doubt, one of the most critically endangered of all Neotropical palms.

J

[bgl]

Jay,

Now that you mention it, yes, I'm convinced there were several single-trunked individuals in that 3 gallon pot. I believe five or so. And they died over a two year period, give or take a few months. I felt it was particularly unfortunate for several reasons. Ken, who was a friend of mine, died in Dec 2002, and he had stressed to me how unusual the palm was, so even though I'm not a big Chamaedorea collector, these particular palms were of particular sentimental significance to me. And Ken and Don did many collecting trips to the South Pacific in the late 1970s, so they had a close relationship going back many years.

Bo-Göran

[aussiearoids]

Nearly lost this plant saw this through the window when I woke up today .

Colour is more intense from below ,

Calyptrocalyx kainlas is much darker looking down .

[Kris]

Dear Kumar

Here are few corypha stills for you and i have posted even your favouriate talipot still.Thought these palms are not rare but are rarely planted in house gardens due to their size...

Here is a still of corypha macropoda,and its a rare palm.It is the tallest & heaviest & most silverish leafed of all the coryphas..

Here is a still of corypha locomtei from thailand,still courtesy our forum member Komikrit.

And here is a link to corypha utan...

http://davesgarden.c...howimage/22698/

Lots of love,

kris

[Kumar]

Beautiful KRis - I salute you! Corphya is no doubt one palm that I for one will never be able to grow. Regrettable that it is so slow growing too.

I think palms that are 'reasonably' rare are more fun to watch out for than those that are so extremely rare that searching for them out of their one (or two) habitats is impossible.

[Vidalii]

to me now living in bluewater north queensland it must be rhapis vidalii and puhuongensis

anyone with info on there wherabouts would love to hear

regards marty

[amazondk]

This is the Barcella odora that I mentioned above. It only is found in a small part of Amazonia stretching across northern Amazonas and southern Roraima states as far as I know. It is a beautiful little non trunking palm that would make a great addition to tropical gardens. As I get seeds I will send some out to my friends in the tropics.

dk

[amazon exotics]

This is the Barcella odora that I mentioned above. It only is found in a small part of Amazonia stretching across northern Amazonas and southern Roraima states as far as I know. It is a beautiful little non trunking palm that would make a great addition to tropical gardens. As I get seeds I will send some out to my friends in the tropics.

dk

[Kris]

Hi,

More updates on Corypha Macropoda...

Love,

Kris.