Understory Palms

[TikiRick]

Today the clouds were clearing after a welcomed night of springtime drizzle, high of 81F here in Ft. Lauderdale.

I
was thinking about all of the often overlooked palms that grow beneath
the larger giants. Here are but a few in my collection...

Heterospathe scitula from the Phillipines. It's a tiny clustering species with acidic soils and regular moisture. New frond is red/copper in color.

One of my favorites, Ptychosperma waitianum. New frond emerges copper.

Needs some protection from the cold, drying winds. I've got about 5 clusters of these throughout the garden.

A recent addition, Ptychococcus pardoxus, native to New Guinea. Although this will hopefully eventually emerge from the understory, right now, I am enjoying the copper emergent new frond. A bit cold sensitive I've read.

Loxococcus rupicola, an interesting native to Sri Lanka. It apparently likes more of an acidic soil, so I continually dump coffee grounds around the drip zone. I love the new red petiole and has withstood 40F without any damage. It is slow for me.

Chambadorea adscendens in seed. This is a favorite old standby for me. I have two large populations of this palm. They are slow, but seem to be well adapted to my soil and climate. I hope to try to germinate this seed. Does it look viable? Any suggestions?

Areca minuta. I have this in deep shade with only some afternoon filtered light. From a 4" container, this palm appears to be a happy one.

In a container, but a nice understory palm is Rhapis laosensis from Thailand and Vietman. The fronds are very small compared to the more common excelsa or humilis.

I've lost the ID tag to this guy....any ideas?

Chamadorea deckeriana is a great palm! This has been in the ground for about 12 years and is now about 7' overall in a deeply shaded area.

Heterospathe longipes, from Fiji, needs continuous moisture and good, rich soil. So far, so good.

Reinhardtia gracilis from Central America's rainforests. Love moisture and high humidity. I've had some struggles with this one. I have two clusters of this palm, but have lost the third cluster. No idea why.

Chamadorea fragrans, a great palm!

Calyptrocaylx albertisianus from New Guinea. LOVE LOVE LOVE this small palm. Bright red emergent frond. Does well for me and I have about a dozen of them scattered throughout the garden.

Rhapis excelsa varigated. Fussy, but does better in a container for me. Rescued from the late Richard Douglas garden, Walnut Creek, CA.

Ptychosperma sp. Small, lacy very thin trunked clustering palm. If you have an ID, please let me know.

Licuala grandis. Great palm, but very slow for me. I have trouble with the wind tatering up the fronds. Holds only about 5 fronds at a time.

Dypsis procera, a great new addition to my collectionl. I love how this palm looks in a wide, tall container. Love moisture and a bit more shade.

Siphokentia (Hydriastele) beguinii is a great palm. This cultivar has entire leaves. Gets a bit wind blown, but it provides a great umbrella like look in deep shade.

If you have ANYTHING to add about these understory palms, please feel free to add your knowledge or experience.

[tjwalters]

I love P. waitianum - one of my favorites. The new leaves on mine are usually a nice deep red. I grow it in a pot since I'm a bit out of zone, but it's probably over 7' tall (including pot height) and has one main trunk and several side trunks. The oldest leaf base just fell away from the main trunk, revealing a new flower spathe. The last one, which appeared in the fall, fizzled, but I'm hoping this one does better since spring is coming.

I have several C. adscendens that routinely flower and set seed. They were pretty fast for me from seed - about 4-5 years to flowering, I think. Your seeds look ready to clean and sow. This one is another of my favorites - I love the tight little crown shaft.

Love your A, minuta. How large does that get? I'm waiting on some A. guppyana seeds - it has a lot of nice attributes: small enough to be grown in a pot; nice stilt roots; nice red fruit; beautiful leaves and crown shaft. Are you growing it?

P. waitianum:

C. adscendens (with a little color!):

[fan palm]

Cool collection of understory palms you have there! I think you will be surprised how big C. Albertisianus can get...

Thanks for posting

Cheers

[Eric F]

My Dypsis procera is in full sun and looks quite similar to yours, although I need to fertilise. I''m not certain how its growth rate would complare. I have also seen Ptychosperma waitanum in full sun, but it does look better in part shade.

The rest of what we have in common (Hydriestele, Chamaedorea, Licuala) I have in anywhere from 50-90% shade, where the percentage is a measure of overall light intensity vs full sun, not hours per day of sun (all zero hours direct sun). I am considering moving the Licuala grandis into more intense light, as it has only put out 2 leaves in the past 12 months.

[Jeff Searle]

Dang! Quite a nice collection of some very rare, beautiful palms. The Heterospathe scitula is extreamly rare, I'm happy to see it thriving.

[realarch]

Nice stuff Rick. Like Harry said, C. albertisiansis does get large, but it will probably take awhile. The red leaf gets more and more spectacular and with the long horizontal fronds the palm can get pretty wide.

Once your Ptychococcos paradoxes establishes itself, it's a fast grower. It's got a slender profile and mine are about 10' tall after three years from a 3 gallon.

Good luck on your Reinhardtia, mine haven't been particularly fast and the four I planted all have had different growth rates, from small to relatively large. They are located close together with the

same exposure, so that's the variability I got.

[NApalm]

Great pics! Thanks for posting

[Cindy Adair]

Great collection Rick! I thought you'd have to be in the tropics to grow all those so well!

[akamu]

nice calyptrocalyx wish we had better luck with those in CA

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Nice Ptychococcus pardoxus Rick and Chameadorea deckeriana is one of the more uncommon Chammys !

[Moose]

"One of my favorites, Ptychosperma waitianum. New frond emerges copper."

New leaf

[Moose]

[Moose]

Here is my udder one. This Ptychosperma waitianum got a bit negelected (Under hydrated). It's three suckers gave up so now its just a single stem. The leaf had alot more red in it the day before. Both of my Ptychosperma waitainums came from the same mother plant. Interesting how the newly emergent leaves were copper and reddish but had the same parents.

[Cindy Adair]

I really have no ideas about growing these since I just stuck them in the ground.

I'm so glad to have finished labels and sorting of my recent photos I just wanted to add the ones I grow of this group.

[Eric F]

I've seen your unknown fine leafed Ptychosperma at least once before, at the gardens of the Buderim Ginger factory in Yandina, Queensland. I'm still trying to track down an ID on it. I think that there may be a labelled one at the Mt. Coot-tha Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, too.

Edit: Ptychosperma sanderianum

[_Keith]

Great post Rick. Appreciate the time it took to put that together.