A few palm photos from Panama

[Jeff in St Pete]

I just got back from a few days in Panama and I thought I would share some palm photos I took.

Cyrtostachys renda are used extensively in the landscape outside of office buildings, banks, and private homes.

Small flowering tree. I know the name of this plant, but I can't remember it at this moment.

Tall Adonidia merrillii

[Jeff in St Pete]

Coconut growing through a Mango tree

Whitewashed C. renda

There were lots of tree-sized Crotons

More Adonidia merrillii

[Jeff in St Pete]

Latania sp. in the park

Bismarckia nobilis

[Jeff in St Pete]

More Bizzies - there are two planted at each entrance to the park

Carpentaria acuminata

Foxtails planted along the street

[XYZ]

Jeff:

In the biz district of downtown Panamá City, there are very large, well-managed old Cyrtostachys clumps that will blow any tropical palm grower's mind (and one of my best friends in SW Guatemala has several thousand gorgeous adults in an area where several nurseries have literally tens of thousands of lipsticks, so I know for what I speak). There is also a very, very, very long property line of Pritchardia on the PanAm Hyw at Chorrera...killer sight.

Beyond this, Panamá must have some of the easiest native palm viewing, in terms of total diversity x given roadside spot, in the Americas. I love Perú at all elevations for may reasons, but Panamá is my favorite palm-ish country visited thus far (I have not been to Colombia, which is probably even better).

BRgds,

J

[Jeff in St Pete]

Jeff:

In the biz district of downtown Panamá City, there are very large, well-managed old Cyrtostachys clumps that will blow any tropical palm grower's mind (and one of my best friends in SW Guatemala has several thousand gorgeous adults in an area where several nurseries have literally tens of thousands of lipsticks, so I know for what I speak). There is also a very, very, very long property line of Pritchardia on the PanAm Hyw at Chorrera...killer sight.

Beyond this, Panamá must have some of the easiest native palm viewing, in terms of total diversity x given roadside spot, in the Americas. I love Perú at all elevations for may reasons, but Panamá is my favorite palm-ish country visited thus far (I have not been to Colombia, which is probably even better).

BRgds,

J

Hi Jay,

Unfortunately I have only been to David, Caldera/Boquete, and Bocas del Toro. I haven't been to Panama City yet but plan to go there someday. I will definitely check out the C. renda and line of Pritchardia when I do. I really want to go to Colombia and I am actually considering a trip there instead of the Thailand Biennial next year. I'm not sure if it's true, but I've read that Colombia has more palm species than any other country in the Americas and is second in the world, after Malaysia. Not to mention the heliconia species found there...

[peachy]

Looks funny to see common natives from here growing in a strange city.

Peachy

[Walt]

Jeff: The tree sized croton is awesome. I never realized they could get to that size. I enjoy seeing extremely mature examples of palms and tropical plants, trees, shrubs, etc. I'm sure in your travels down there in Costa Rica, Panama, etc., you run across many nice examples.

[Mandrew968]

I can't believe someone painted those lipsticks!

[palmislandRandy]

Jeff, I also just got back from Panama! My wife and I spent the week in Boquete. There were no rendas in Boquete due to the altitude & temp, but down lower around David lipsticks were everywhere.

-Randy

[bgl]

Jeff,

Great trip! It's always nice to see large specimens used in city plantings. Those Bismarckias are real eye-catchers!

Bo-Göran

[paulgila]

great pix,jeff. i am kinda glad c.renda doesnt grow here.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Peachy, they do also use native Acrocomia in public plantings, especially in parking lots of strip malls. I didn't get any photos of them because I didn't have my camera on me that day.

Walt, I actually saw a larger Croton than that on my way back to the border. It was in a front yard along the highway and it was enormous! All the larger "tree" Crotons that I saw were all the same cultivar which must have been introduced a long time ago.

Andrew, At times I think the white washed trunks look nice (on certain species).

Randy, how was Boquete? I only spent a few days in that area back in May. Isn't there some big festival coming up soon (like this weekend or next weekend) in Boquete? I heard something about it when I was in David.

Bo, Those Bizzies have really grown since my first visit in Dec 2008. I've been told that park used to be filled with huge old trees that shaded the entire park. Flocks of birds would gather in the trees and crap all over everything and everybody so they removed most of the trees and replanted with palms.

Paul, If C. renda grew everywhere and was a typical landscape palm, I think most palm peeps would treat it with the same contempt as D. lutescens.

[palmislandRandy]

Jeff, Boquete was very nice, & quaint, although a little cooler than we expected. They were preparing for their Third Independence Day which is on the 28th of November.

-Randy

[Patricia-CR]

Very nice!

[ariscott]

Paul, If C. renda grew everywhere and was a typical landscape palm, I think most palm peeps would treat it with the same contempt as D. lutescens.

Jeff,

They are everywhere here.... but they are still very popular. I don't think they will ever be in the boat as D. lutescens!!! They are much slower, much neater and overall prettier . I have 6 of them.. and I only have 1 D. lutescens

Regards, Ari

[peachy]

Once I realised that the much vaunted lipsticks are clustering I couldnt give mine away fast enough. Nice colours wasted on a damned old clumper.

Peachy

[Kris]

Dear Jeff

Beautiful visuals of Biziee and lipstiks,And like always the lipsticks blew my feet away from the ground !

Thanks & Love,

kris.

[Dave-Vero]

Considering that Bocas del Toro is a place of wonders (including some extremely neat Zamia cycads), I doubt that Panama City has much else to offer. Of course the business district is a booming, lively place with great restaurants, wonderful supermarkets, the works.

[XYZ]

Dave:

The immediate environs and suburbs of Panama City include Soberanía NP (incl. the old Summit Gardens collection, Pipeline Road, one hour access to relictual forests on the Caribbean side, incl. an easy drive to Cerro Azul/Jefe, Barro Colorado Island and the Llano-Cartí Rd in Kuna Yala...all of these localities are quite different from the lowlands of Bocas, and are superb places to see lots of extremely interesting palms and cycads...you will not see Attalea allenii, Bactris charnleyae, Oenocarpus mapora, Phytelephas seemannii, pure stands of ,000s of montane Colpothrinax aphanopetala, Chamedorea guntheriana, Zamia dressleri, Z. cunaria, Z. elegantissima, et. al. in Bocas my friend.

J

[Brad Mondel]

THOSE ARE UGLY

[hanapalms]

But they will do in a pinch.

THOSE ARE UGLY