Pritchardia ID

[Bruh]

The flowers and fruit of this palm caught my eye today at Hoomaluhia Botanical Garden. In past visits, I assumed this unlabeled palm was a type of Fiji Fan,(even though this area of the garden is labeled as the native hawaiian section) as they have several P. Thurstonii planted nearby. But I thought the fruit looked too big for a non-native hawaiian pritchardia.

Any ideas what it is? I think it's a rather handsome palm.

[richnorm]

Maybe lowreyana?  Would need to key out with Hodel's book.

 

[quaman58]

My first thought was hardyi, due to the length of the flowering structure, but the leaves are not glaucous underneath. I need to check the book as well..

[colin Peters]

Seeds look too big for P. hardyi, there are a couple of them close to this one, the length of the flower stalk is really, really long.  Might be P. lowreyana, there are some close also.  There is a nice P. waialeale further up the slope, can't wait to see that guy get big, pretty rare and never heard of anyone having that in cultivation??

Thanks for sharing Preston

[Bruh]

Pic of the P. Waialealeana below. Even at this size, already a stunner.

 

 

[richnorm]

2 hours ago, colin Peters said:

Seeds look too big for P. hardyi, there are a couple of them close to this one, the length of the flower stalk is really, really long.  Might be P. lowreyana, there are some close also.  There is a nice P. waialeale further up the slope, can't wait to see that guy get big, pretty rare and never heard of anyone having that in cultivation??

Thanks for sharing Preston

There is a stunning one out the back of a nursery here in NZ which as luck would have it I am hoping to see this weekend. Will grab a photo. 

[richnorm]

Crumby pic of when I last saw it a few years ago.  In the flesh a real stunner.  I am hoping the seed is now viable!

 

[Bruh]

4 minutes ago, richnorm said:

Crumby pic of when I last saw it a few years ago.  In the flesh a real stunner.  I am hoping the seed is now viable!

 

What a beaut

[quaman58]

It looks like flowers, stalk length & fruit size key out to loweyana; the pictures in Hodels book also look spot on. Waialealeana (sp?) has much smaller fruits & shorter flower stalks. Great pictures, all!

[Bruh]

I feel like the fruit branchlets(?) aren't right for Lowreyana. I think these had some sort of little tan fuzz on them, while the pictures of Lowreyana's in Hodel's book are hairless and mostly greenish in color.

But I'm not great at palm ID'ing. It might be wishful thinking on my part, but I kinda think the palm looks like P. Woodii.

[Matt in OC]

Another (non expert) vote for woodii. The fruit branchlets and fruit shape (ovoid to elipsoid) seem more consistent with woodii than lowreyana. Another clue is Hodel's book has picture credits to Ho'omaluhia of the fruit and branchlets.

[richnorm]

Agreed, woodii seems like a good call with that fuzz.