Florida Keys Palms

[Palmaceae]

Hello all,

We were in the Florida Keys last week and wanted to share some pictures. You will see many Coccothrinax argentata's on Big Pine Key near Marathon growing in the wild, also a lot of Leucothrinax morrisii. Also some very tall Coccothrinax argentata's in Bahia Honda State Park.

[Palmaceae]

Now some non-native palms.

Pritchardia pacifica

[Palmaceae]

Pritchardia thurstonii and Copernicia (I believe baileyana)

[Palmaceae]

Nice size Breadfruit tree in the upper Keys.

[Palmaceae]

And of course some nice coconut palms.

[Palmaceae]

Corypha umbraculifera

[Palmaceae]

Hyphaene and Corypha Utan, and another Copernicia. Some palm lover lives in Marathon.

[PalmatierMeg]

Great photos. I loved seeing C. argentata in the wild last year.

[Yunder Wækraus]

Thanks! We visited Bahia Honda for our first time last year, but I didn't have a camera on me. I love the silver thatch palms growing wild there.

[foxtail]

Corypha umbraculifera

Ufff that's palm is a monster Edited August 26, 2015 by foxtail

[rick]

Hello all,

We were in the Florida Keys last week and wanted to share some pictures. You will see many Coccothrinax argentata's on Big Pine Key near Marathon growing in the wild, also a lot of Leucothrinax morrisii. Also some very tall Coccothrinax argentata's in Bahia Honda State Park.

Does that argentata in the second to last pic have 2 heads?

[Palmaceae]

Hello all,

We were in the Florida Keys last week and wanted to share some pictures. You will see many Coccothrinax argentata's on Big Pine Key near Marathon growing in the wild, also a lot of Leucothrinax morrisii. Also some very tall Coccothrinax argentata's in Bahia Honda State Park.

Does that argentata in the second to last pic have 2 heads?

Yes, good eye. That is why I took a picture of it, must of had some injury at some point but both heads were growing but not looking too healthy.

[Danilopez89]

Sweet pics! The bailey and corypha are super NICE.

[Dave-Vero]

The lower Keys get only half the rain that the Miami area does, so it's a very different plant habitat. In general, things grow much more slowly in the Big Pine Key pinelands than on the mainland.

[Matthew92]

Been digging through my archives lately, here's some shots I got in Key West back in 2009.

Some nice tall, robust coco's:

Edited August 31, 2015 by Opal92

[Matthew92]

[Matthew92]

Spindle functioning well as a street palm:

[mnorell]

The lower Keys get only half the rain that the Miami area does, so it's a very different plant habitat. In general, things grow much more slowly in the Big Pine Key pinelands than on the mainland.

Dave, I don't think that's necessarily the case, though it would be interesting to see a study on the balance of effects between the two areas. There is a difference in average annual precipitation (40" in Key West vs. 48" at Miami Beach, and 60" at Miami Airport) and it is true that the rain here is frustratingly irregular and comes in big, occasional downpours or very typically as a shower at 6am, vs. the daily afternoon downpours in SE Florida. But here in the Lower Keys we do have a sizeable freshwater lens that our jungle can tap into. Things grow with incredible alacrity here despite the noticeable spottiness of rain. I think a way we make up for it is the significantly warmer nighttime temperatures throughout the year. As an example, Green Malay coconuts at my place put on two feet of trunk per year with little or no irrigation once established and with no fertilizer. I have a Panama Tall that went from 7gal size to 25' overall in 3 years with no attention paid to it. I'm not sure how that stacks up against Miami or Homestead numbers. Pseudophoenix actually grow at a decent clip as well (still slow but not frustratingly so). We have large Coccothrinax argentata and Leucothrinax all over the place (literally hundreds of thousands of them on Big Pine Key), and they're not exactly fast but they're not quite as slow as you might think. We can hardly keep the mahogany and gumbo limbo in check because they are so crazy fast, and this may also be the case in SE Florida mainland areas...but it is just a pure greenhouse environment and the atmospheric humidity, which is always high, in combination with that freshwater lens under these islands, gives any coralline-friendly plant a happy home it seems...as long as the Key Deer don't fancy it!

[Moose]

The keys are getting many more palms introduced. Some nice tropicals that are marginal on the mainland. 

[Ken Johnson]

Hyphaene and Corypha Utan, and another Copernicia. Some palm lover lives in Marathon.

 

 

Maybe Copernicia berteroana?

[Jeff Searle]

The keys are getting many more palms introduced. Some nice tropicals that are marginal on the mainland. 

Hmmm, wonder how this has been happening?

[doranakandawatta]

The keys are getting many more palms introduced. Some nice tropicals that are marginal on the mainland. 

Hmmm, wonder how this has been happening?

Yes,  how did this happen? birds? 

[Yunder Wækraus]

On 8/26/2015, 12:50:50, Palmaceae said:

Hello all,

We were in the Florida Keys last week and wanted to share some pictures. You will see many Coccothrinax argentata's on Big Pine Key near Marathon growing in the wild, also a lot of Leucothrinax morrisii. Also some very tall Coccothrinax argentata's in Bahia Honda State Park.

 

 

These photos are great!

[Yunder Wækraus]

On 8/26/2015, 12:50:50, Palmaceae said:

Hello all,

We were in the Florida Keys last week and wanted to share some pictures. You will see many Coccothrinax argentata's on Big Pine Key near Marathon growing in the wild, also a lot of Leucothrinax morrisii. Also some very tall Coccothrinax argentata's in Bahia Honda State Park.

 

 

The third photo down is my favorite. I didn't realize how majestic these palms looked in the wild.

[Palmaceae]

1 minute ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

The third photo down is my favorite. I didn't realize how majestic these palms looked in the wild.

Thank you, I can only imagine how old it is.

[Yunder Wækraus]

1 minute ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

The third photo down is my favorite. I didn't realize how majestic these palms looked in the wild.

The trunks seem to be spiraling. Is that how they really look? Is it an optical illusion? Whatever the cause, I love the look in the photos. 

[Palmaceae]

1 minute ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

The trunks seem to be spiraling. Is that how they really look? Is it an optical illusion? Whatever the cause, I love the look in the photos. 

Not an optical illusion, that is how they grow.

[Yunder Wækraus]

1 minute ago, Palmaceae said:

Not an optical illusion, that is how they grow.

It's a Coccothrinax argentata, right?

[Palmaceae]

Just now, Yunder Wækraus said:

It's a Coccothrinax argentata, right?

That is correct.

 

[Yunder Wækraus]

4 minutes ago, Palmaceae said:

That is correct.

 

Do you know whether they ever got that tall on the mainland? And, if they did, are there any extant examples with that kind of size? I honestly had no idea that C. argentata could grow to be such a decent-sized tree. How tall would you say the tallest in your photos might be? Thirty feet? More?

[Palmaceae]

12 minutes ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

Do you know whether they ever got that tall on the mainland? And, if they did, are there any extant examples with that kind of size? I honestly had no idea that C. argentata could grow to be such a decent-sized tree. How tall would you say the tallest in your photos might be? Thirty feet? More?

Can't answer the mainland question but that palm was about 25' - 30'+ tall.

[Mandrew968]

Argentata is an enigmatic species; the ones found in the mainland tend to be very small and can fruit without even a trunk--maybe the most costapalmate leaf in the genus. While the ones found in the Keys are much more robust and some even have been known to pup. Imagine that...

[Yunder Wækraus]

1 hour ago, Mandrew968 said:

Argentata is an enigmatic species; the ones found in the mainland tend to be very small and can fruit without even a trunk--maybe the most costapalmate leaf in the genus. While the ones found in the Keys are much more robust and some even have been known to pup. Imagine that...

Is this because of nature or nurture? My little C. Argentata was grown from seed collected in the Keys (or so I was told). Should I therefore expect it to grow like those in the keys? Here's a pic of mine:

[Mandrew968]

I think it will grow like the ones in the Keys, but in no way, shape, or form fast. Nice looking palm.

[JasonD]

Scott Zona did a test on the height growth of various populations and found that when grown in the same conditions the ones collected from short (northern) populations grew short and those from tall (southern) populations grew tall.

[Zeeth]

13 minutes ago, JasonD said:

Scott Zona did a test on the height growth of various populations and found that when grown in the same conditions the ones collected from short (northern) populations grew short and those from tall (southern) populations grew tall.

Good to know! I collected seeds from Bahia Honda two years ago so it's good to know they'll grow tall.