Chamaedorea metallica hybrid or just a split leaf form?

[Mandrew968]

Greetings. A while ago, I gave some Chamaedorea palms to a friend who lives in an apartment complex. One of them was a seedling metallica palm. Since having been planted, it is doing well. However, it looks different from other split leaf forms I have seen... I was thinking it looks like may be a hybrid--what does Palmtalk think? Has anyone ever come accross a metallica hybrid?

I told my friend he has one gnarly looking palm--almost like a blue Calyptrocalyx!

[DoomsDave]

Looks like a very nice split leaf form.

The do all the things taht the regular ones do, except getting split leaves.

[BS Man about Palms]

I specifically look for these when I get one. Have one growing in the yard now. Probably not even 5% are that way.. maybe 3%?

[George Sparkman]

less then 1%

[Mandrew968]

I have seen split leaf metallica before, but never as wide as these leaflets are tending towards. I was thinking a hybrid, but that's why I posted here...

[Mandrew968]

Just now looked at all of the pics I could find of other split leaf metallicas--this one looks different... the leaflets are much wider and not sure if they want to stay simple or divide. Metallicas can hybridize, no?

[nachocarl]

I have three of these in pots from a couple of different sources and they all show this to a varying degree having some full leaves and some split. There is no rhythm that I have observed as to when they throw a split leaf, simply from happenstance so it seems.

[Mandrew968]

Thanks everyone. I am becoming convinced.

[Jim in Los Altos]

I have grown and currently grow lots of these and have never had a split leafed one with leaves that wide. The split leafed ones always have narrower leaves. Andrew, yours may be a hybrid or just a really nice variation of C. metallica but, if it were mine, I'd suspect a hybrid since there are so many different adult Chamaedorea palms in close proximity in my landscape.

[gyuseppe]

could be metallica x oblongata?

[Jeff Searle]

Just a split leaf metallica, nothing more. It's referred to variation within.....

[Stevetoad]

Im pretty sure this is a variation of trithrinax. but then again my computer screen wont turn on

[Gonzer]

I have three of these in pots from a couple of different sources and they all show this to a varying degree having some full leaves and some split. There is no rhythm that I have observed as to when they throw a split leaf, simply from happenstance so it seems.

Exactamundo!

[amazon exotics]

it looks different than my split leaf

[Mandrew968]

Yeah, something caught me on this too--I am not a stranger to the pinnate form of metallica. This palm did come from a garden with 25 plus species of Chamaedorea so anything is possible--I just have googled all of the split leafers I can find and none of them look Calyptrocalyx like this one does... Can oblongata and metallica cross??? I am constantly making oblongata seed.

[palmluva]

My dear friend Dick Douglas used to select metallicas that had some version of a split leaf and cross them with each other. He started with a couple of plants that had one or two divisions on the leaves, then finally ended up with having the entire plant with each and every leaf split into nearly identical number of leaflets for a very uniform look. He had them growing in one gallon pots for years and they were absolutely perfect. I believe that they also came true from seed. Dick was a master hybridizer of Chamaedoreas. His C. oreophila crossed with radicalis were amazing.

[Luton Karuon]

Hello, I had already many pinnate laeved Ch. metallica like these without hybridizing them:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/palmeir/9934616705/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/palmeir/9857156496/

Greeting from Germany, L.K.

[Luton Karuon]

[Mandrew968]

Went by to see my buddy, yesterday. I am going to go with a hybrid on this palm. It just looks funkier than all the other split leafers I have ever seen.