Butia capitata

[edric]

I must have gotten a little wild with the palm fert., Ed

[Mandrew968]

Crazy! Is that capitata or odorata?

[edric]

Crazy! Is that capitata or odorata?

Hi Mandrew, not sure but the seed came from a palm that is dead now, was on the back road to the cape, was an old house there built in the 1800's, when NASA took over the property they demo'd the house and left the tree, it was the tallest Butia I've seen in person, I got fruit off of it for the last time in 1993, I went back the next year, and it was dead, found the seedling just pushing out its third leaf, now it's got four feet of trunk, and like the mother it has the best fruit I've ever eaten, Ed p.s. here's a link to some photos, albeit a couple years old http://www2.palmpedia.net/wiki/index.php/Butia_capitata

[Mandrew968]

Too bad about the mother plant--do you know what happened to her? The photos you directed me to are what used to be capitata, but Dr. Larry Noblick of MBC has fairly recently changed the name to its original name, back when Martius first described it. The real capitata is much smaller in all respects and, once seen, is hard to confuse with the real odorata.

[edric]

Too bad about the mother plant--do you know what happened to her? The photos you directed me to are what used to be capitata, but Dr. Larry Noblick of MBC has fairly recently changed the name to its original name, back when Martius first described it. The real capitata is much smaller in all respects and, once seen, is hard to confuse with the real odorata.

I see, The mother I speak of was 100 years old, no doubt died of old age, Ed

[Mandrew968]

That's not very old as far as trees go...

[edric]

That's not very old as far as trees go...

That was just a guess, probably more like 120, Ed

[Mandrew968]

I'm thinkin' about 300 years for the average tree--that's about how long a Macadamia tree lives for... Phytelephas

seemannii can, technically, live forever.

[newtothis]

mine did that after a freeze once

[redbeard917]

That looks a lot like the boron deficiency symptom referred to in this publication as "hookleaf". See figure 1.

Boron Deficiency in Palms

[Vic]

Not sure its a fert issue, but i have had this happen with jubaea and butia in the past. I remember someone calling them 'lightnening bolts' in the past, i'm sure its nothing to worry about.

[edric]

I get nearly 400 large ripe fruit a year, starting in about three weeks, Ed

[Takil-Explorer]

Well in Uruguay I have seen ones wich where probably 300 years and older.

Alexander

[WestCoastGal]

That looks a lot like the boron deficiency symptom referred to in this publication as "hookleaf". See figure 1.

Boron Deficiency in Palms

Thanks for linking to this article. I was looking at our mule the other day which had recently flowered and I noticed this same "lightning bolt" pattern on a fairly newly opened frond. Now I know what caused it. Not sure my camera can capture a picture of it but I'll post one if I can. We just came out of a rainy period this past March where we had one month of rain almost every day. Wonder if it developed then.

Since I read the condition is symptomatic of Boron deficiency, I checked the fertilizer that we were given to use, First Choice 14-4-9 Super Palm (we're on the west coast of the U.S. BTW) and I noticed that it doesn't have Boron listed in the analysis, so I guess if the Boron is leached out of the soil during the rains (or through deep watering maybe), it certainly isn't getting any from the fertilizer. I'll have to keep an eye on the other emerging spears. So where does one get Boron from? Is this a reason to use organic fertilizer where you would I assume get the Boron from the decomposing material?

Edited June 7, 2011 by WestCoastGal