any info on Attalea cohune

[Stevetoad]

any info on cold/dry heat/water.....for Attalea cohune?

thanks guys

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I have a seedling growing from seeds collected in Costa Rica. They like a ton of heat which I don't have, the dry dormant season is equivalent to the dry Summer season in California, so they also need a ton of water to grow. Frond damage at 28-30F, not exactly a great palm for California but if's gonna grow anywhere, I would think inland San Diego would be great. Best for Florida, though.

[virtualpalm]

Yep... heat and water.

[Eric in Orlando]

Attalea cohune is one of the more cold hardy Attalea species.

[quaman58]

Steve,

Gary Woods up at the soon-to-be-history South Coast Palms has some gigantic Attalea up at his place, but I'm not sure which one. (Fallbrook) I was nursing along a seedling outdoors, in a pot, for a few years, but this last winter whacked it. It was pretty small though.

Bret

[Kim]

Steve, Alan Valley is growing a big Attalea in Palm Desert, not sure of the exact species. This proves it can take the arid heat, that's for sure. You'll find photos in this thread:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/30963-oases-gardens-in-the-desert/?hl=desert

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

Steve, Alan Valley is growing a big Attalea in Palm Desert, not sure of the exact species. This proves it can take the arid heat, that's for sure. You'll find photos in this thread:

http://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/30963-oases-gardens-in-the-desert/?hl=desert

I found seeds on the ground in Nosara, Costa Rica, which is mostly deciduous dry forest, totally defoliated during the dry season, extremely dry and hot, and very wet and green during the rainy season. The seeds keep forever because they are adapted to lie around in dry dirt and wait for the rainy season to germinate. You can definitely grow Attalea cohune in inland Southern California provided you have a spot that doesn't get severe freezes and you can give it a ton of water. They go completely dormant without water. My seedling has dried out completely on numerous occasions since I pretty much neglect it. Without water it simply goes to sleep for long periods of time. it grows with limited heat, but it's slow as snails. it is unaffected by cool nights. When it's above 70F during the day, it will grow.

Any freeze tolerance for this palm will be due to its adaptation to arid dry conditions.

My seeds germinated in 60-70F temperatures, so this seems to be a palm that is unhampered by cool nights and doesn't need to be in Florida to grow. Although I am sure it's much happier in Florida because of the wet Summer/dry Winter pattern which is the same pattern as in Nosara, Costa Rica.

I did see this palm grow all the way up to 7,000 feet.

[Stevetoad]

thanks for all the info guys! looks like im going to put one of these in my "island" that i plan to make soon instead of a large fan palm.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

I have a Cohune at my old place growing in pure beach sand. I gave it plenty of water to get started but no irrigation in the last 5 years. Better than 20 feet tall, all leaves still, shade in the morning and full sun in the afternoon.

[sarasota alex]

There are many large Attalea cohune growing in Central Florida with no issues. I've also many in pots from the seeds I collected in Belize that I never take inside.

Axel, the ones native to Costa Rica are Attalea rostrata. I've seen a lot of them on the Pacific side there.

I've heard growers here in Sarasota say that they believe that Attalea phalerata is the hardiest one.

[Hammer]

Steve, did you end up getting an Attalea?

[palmislandRandy]

Not much to do with temp as these photos were taken last month in Belize, almost at the Guatemala border & they were quite impressive in person.

[Eric in Orlando]

Attalea rostrata is also another of the hardier ones.

There used to be a large specimen here at Leu Gardens. It had no trunk yet but 20ft leaves and it flowered. Unfortunately a nearby tree was struck by lightning and it killed the A. rostrata. It was planted back in 1973 and survived the 3 record freeze years (1983, 1985, 1989). Those 3 years had temperatures dropping to near 20F. The 1989 freeze had 2 nights at 19-20F. The Attalea rostrata (along with an Arenga pinnata) survived the freeze but the couple dozen "hardy" Syagrus romanzoffiana nearby were killed along with Archontophoenix cunninghamiana . There were also nearby clumps of Phoenix reclinata that had most of the stems killed back.

The Attalea rostrata would defoliate below around 27F but quickly grow back.

[Eric in Orlando]

Palmisland, those are some cool pics of wild specimens.