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Giant sago palms - LOOK! (cycas revoluta)

Sandy Loam

By Sandy Loam
in COLD HARDY PALMS

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Sandy Loam Veteran

Sandy Loam

Posted
Posted

This week I drove past these giant sago palms (cycas revoluta) and I could not resist taking a photo. There are a lot of sago palms here in Gainesville, Florida, but the ones in these 3 attached photos are possibly the biggest I have ever seen. The one in the first photo had a central trunk that was possibly twice my height. I recall exactly, but it was huge.

The houses in this district were mostly built in the 1890s, so these sago palms may be as old as 125 years if they were planted when the home was constructed.

PHOTO 1 - huge sago

PHOTO 2 - same huge sago, but slightly different angle

PHOTO 3 - different multi-trunk sago; not as tall as the tree in the first photo, but almost as wide.... so, not as big, but still a very large sago

If you have photos of giant sago palms to share, please do. Show me your tallest sago! I am very curious.

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Sandy Loam Veteran

Sandy Loam

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That is enormous for a sago palm. Does anyone know how many years it takes for a Sago to grow that tall? Can they live to be hundreds of years old?

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Alicehunter2000 Grand Master

Alicehunter2000

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Really hard to tell the size from pictures.....but my bad guess would probably be that they were about 30-50 years old. Not sure cycads were even available in the early 1900's ..... don't really know the history....maybe someone can chime in and give us a cycad history lesson.

David Simms zone 9a on Highway 30a

200 steps from the Gulf in NW Florida

30 ft. elevation and sandy soil

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Xerarch Grand Master

Xerarch

Posted
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Holy cow! that cluster in the first post has the look of a nice Chamaerops,

This post gets me thinking, anyone have habitat photos of these? we wouldn't be restricted to just seeing how big they can grow in the relatively short cultivation period.

Corpus Christi, TX, near salt water, zone 9b/10a! Except when it isn't and everything gets nuked.

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  • 2 weeks later...
willials Enthusiast

willials

Posted
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I thought these were supposed to be prehistoric plants that have been known to be in existence since the time of the dinosaurs but I am certainly no expert, so may not know what I'm talking about. Somebody on here must know with all the collective knowledge on this site.

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_Keith Grand Master

_Keith

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Really hard to tell the size from pictures.....but my bad guess would probably be that they were about 30-50 years old. Not sure cycads were even available in the early 1900's ..... don't really know the history....maybe someone can chime in and give us a cycad history lesson.

I am thinking more on the 50 year side of that range.

In my post I sometimes express "my" opinion. Warning, it may differ from "your" opinion. If so, please do not feel insulted, just state your own if you wish. Any data in this post is provided 'as is' and in no event shall I be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, damages resulting from accuracy or lack thereof, insult, or any other damages

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Palm crazy Grand Master

Palm crazy

Posted
Posted (edited)

Those are pretty big cycads.

There are some cycads in Africa that are thousand years old and are only found in one part of the country, I think the name is Modajagi cycads. Encephalartos transvenosus.

Edited by Palm crazy
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edbrown_III Grand Master

edbrown_III

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the first time I saw these were about 30 years ago and they were big then I am reckoning most of those were planted before 1960 but Merrill has gone on to better places so no one knows for shure.

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Cikas Mentor

Cikas

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Really hard to tell the size from pictures.....but my bad guess would probably be that they were about 30-50 years old. Not sure cycads were even available in the early 1900's ..... don't really know the history....maybe someone can chime in and give us a cycad history lesson.

It is much older than that. Probably in 100-200 years old range. Cycas revoluta is very, very slow plant.

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Cikas Mentor

Cikas

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For example these in Arboretum Trsteno ( Dubrovnik ) are approximately 100 years old. And they are smaller.

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DoomsDave Grand Master

DoomsDave

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Wow, those are nice and big!

I know that European rich folks were collecting a lot of exotic stuff in the late 1800s at least, and I'll bet even before.

Let's keep our forum fun and friendly.

Any data in this post is provided 'as is' and in no event shall I be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, damages resulting from accuracy or lack thereof, insult, or lost profits or revenue, claims by third parties or for other similar costs, or any special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of my opinion or the use of this data. The accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way and I disclaim liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use my data. Other terms may apply.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Josh-O Grand Master

Josh-O

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Dave, your spot on with your thread!! English royalty have been importing plants and animals since the early 1800's from all through Asia and Africa...etc

nice pics Sandy!! I saw a cluster of queen sego's on Maui that had almost 17' of solid trunk 6 yrs ago on vacation. I'm typically not a cycad guy but I was centrally impressed!!

Carlsbad, California Zone 10 B on the hill (402 ft. elevation)

Sunset zone 24

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TexasColdHardyPalms Grand Master

TexasColdHardyPalms

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Here is the largest revoluta that I have seen in person. I was told that it was planted at the turn of the century when the Kualoa ranch house in Oahu (ranch where Jurassic park and many other movies were filmed) was built. There are many pictures inside the museum and there was one in the 1920's that showed this specimen as a small plant. This particular specimen was about 9.5-10' CT. There is a tour across the road near the old fishing dam that has a revoluta garden with around 80 specimens. They are all rather small (2-5' CT) considering I was told that garden was planted 50 years ago.

The second pictures is of a few large and severely weather worn revoluta in front of the court house/detention center in Lihue. There were around 8 of them lining the entry way.

I can attest that my revoluta have averaged 1.25 flushes per year resulting in 1.75" of average trunk growth per year over the last 5 years (28" to 36.5" CT). DFW is not the best place for revoluta as they defoliate every few years and we have had two bad years in the past five. In Houston revoluta flush at least twice per year (almost never defoliate) resulting in much quicker growth. I would expect New Orleans and Northern Florida to be on par with Houston. I have heard that some growers in the South Texas Valley can get their revoluta to flush up to 3 times a year. With this growth rate it is easy to for me to believe that a revolta's age would be slightly less than the trunk height in inches as it is extremely unlikely that over the course of 80-100 years that proper nutrition had been provided to the plant to obtain consistent, maximum growth.

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  • 7 months later...
Sandy Loam Veteran

Sandy Loam

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More photos of old, giant Sago (cycas revoluta) in the Duckpond Historic District of Gainesville, Florida. The photos were taken this past winter.

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Sandy Loam Veteran

Sandy Loam

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What an amazing cluster of Sagos. They must be 100 years old!

There was an even bigger sago beside the same house, but my photo of it was too large to upload to PalmTalk. I may take a photo of it later to post. It was a beauty.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Frond of Palms Collaborator

Frond of Palms

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Really hard to tell the size from pictures.....but my bad guess would probably be that they were about 30-50 years old. Not sure cycads were even available in the early 1900's ..... don't really know the history....maybe someone can chime in and give us a cycad history lesson.

I think they were available earlier...it was known that George Washington had one.

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