Hyophorbe indica

[Tyrone]

8 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Interestingly I’ve had the same but opposite initial experience. First time germinating the green firm I had a few reds pop up (including the above palm). Reds all opened a fully pinnate first frond, greens were bifid. Then I’ve just germinated a large batch of reds and they are all red so far and all pinnate from the start. 

I reckon there are two close species going on here. A red form pinnate from the get go and faster than the green, and the slower green with bifid first leaves. 
 

The flora in Reunion is greatly disturbed from the original condition of the island in the early 1600s. But it seems the green is from the south eastern side of Reunion where luckily it still remains in habitat from around 300m asl. However the Le Tampon area where the red form is reportedly from is in the southern part of the island around 850m asl and more just north of Saint Pierre and it’s a built up area. I doubt that they exist in the wild now. There’s no wild left there. I hope I’m wrong but I never saw any forest there. It’s not far from Trois Mare where Acanthophoenix roueselii comes from and they exist in the confines of a private farm/paddock. So we can’t take a look at a 20m high specimen and compare unfortunately. It may be extinct in the wild.