Chamaedorea tenella

[tjwalters]

Here's my cute, but lonely, little female Chamaedorea tenella I grew from seed I received from @PalmatierMeg about 5 years ago.  (Thanks, Meg!  How's that oil palm doing?)  It's all of 8" tall and is ready to flower again, for the second time, but I have no male plants for pollen. Anyone have access to C. tenella pollen?  (I have few fresh C. adscendens seeds I could swap. )

[Palm Tree Jim]

Nice plant.

[PalmatierMeg]

Tom, that C. tenella is awesome. I've never had any come up from seed for me but I'm giving them another shot with seeds from one female.

The mutant oil is also doing fantastic. The leaves are 12-15' long and still bifid. No sign of a trunk yet. It came through Hurricane Irma with a lot of broken fronds but is roaring back.

[palmtreesforpleasure]

HI Tom, 

So many forms of Chamaedorea tenella (geonomiformis)

Little leaf form, Wide leaf form. Long leaf form and Sp chiapis form

You look as if you have the wide leaf form.

sp Chiapis form (picture below) i got from Loran Whitelock when visiting a few years ago

Sorry about the quality of the photo's, for some reason it will only let me load KB files size. Notice the deep wringles in the leaf.

There is something different about this form, Loran kept telling me he thought it is a different species, waiting for them to flower, Don thinks not.

regards

colin

 

[tjwalters]

2 hours ago, PalmatierMeg said:

Tom, that C. tenella is awesome. I've never had any come up from seed for me but I'm giving them another shot with seeds from one female.

The mutant oil is also doing fantastic. The leaves are 12-15' long and still bifid. No sign of a trunk yet. It came through Hurricane Irma with a lot of broken fronds but is roaring back.

Meg, you must post a picture of that oil palm!

[tjwalters]

Colin,

So far, mine has had spicate inflorescences, for what it's worth.  Would love to get some pollen, but maybe I'll just have to grow some more from seed and hope for a male.   Only 4 years from seed to flowering!

Did you ever have any luck germinating the C. adscendens seeds?

[Beespalms]

I got mature C. Tenella for sale.  I have 20 or so mature plants I hand pollinate and produce seeds. I get 80% male, so be happy you got a female.  I usually keep the females.  I will make sure you get a happy male if your interested.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/162792168634

[palmtreesforpleasure]

On 07/12/2017, 12:07:07, tjwalters said:

Colin,

So far, mine has had spicate inflorescences, for what it's worth.  Would love to get some pollen, but maybe I'll just have to grow some more from seed and hope for a male.   Only 4 years from seed to flowering!

Did you ever have any luck germinating the C. adscendens seeds?

Hi Tom,

Germinated and planted. Just sent 5 to Queensland as a trade. Some ended up in Wollongong Botanic gardens

Thanks again Tom

Regards

Colin

 

[XYZ]

While I have some lingering doubts that plants called "tenella" from Puntarenas Prov. and the Osa Peninsula in SE CRica are the same beast, I think most (all?) regional palm researchers agree that SE Mexican plants are just dwarf variants of C. geonomiformis. That would include plants from the state of Chiapas. I am not aware that any authority currently accepts "tenella" as a valid name. I have posted pics here before, but just as there are "dwarf" variants of geo, there is a "giant/long-leaf" ecotype of geo from the Sierra del Caral on the Honduran border with E Guatemala.

In any event, Chamaedorea geonomiformis in its different manifestations is a very beautiful, rewarding and easy to grow palm.

[tjwalters]

On 12/8/2017, 7:20:01, palmtreesforpleasure said:

Hi Tom,

Germinated and planted. Just sent 5 to Queensland as a trade. Some ended up in Wollongong Botanic gardens

Thanks again Tom

Regards

Colin

Good to know, Colin, and very cool.  Thanks!

[tjwalters]

On 12/8/2017, 1:56:39, stone jaguar said:

While I have some lingering doubts that plants called "tenella" from Puntarenas Prov. and the Osa Peninsula in SE CRica are the same beast, I think most (all?) regional palm researchers agree that SE Mexican plants are just dwarf variants of C. geonomiformis. That would include plants from the state of Chiapas. I am not aware that any authority currently accepts "tenella" as a valid name. I have posted pics here before, but just as there are "dwarf" variants of geo, there is a "giant/long-leaf" ecotype of geo from the Sierra del Caral on the Honduran border with E Guatemala.

In any event, Chamaedorea geonomiformis in its different manifestations is a very beautiful, rewarding and easy to grow palm.

Yes, according to most of the experts, C. tenella is a synonym for C. geonomiformis.