Different Palms trunk base diameter

[sonoranfans]

I have a few palms that are almost mature and I walked around yesterday with a ruler to see how thick they were.  Some have leaf bases still attached and s few have self shedding clean trunks.  I used a 12 oz beer bottle to scale the trunk bases to allow better visual of the thickness.  First up are my thickest, sabal causiarum with leaf bases its 40" and second thickest bismarckia nobillis at 33" with the clean trunk.  these both were small palms in 2011, a 5 gallon bismarckia and a strap leaf causiarum grew to these monster thicknesses in about 6 years.

[sonoranfans]

the next two are cleaned trunks from Royal and copernicia fallaensis.  These palms were already juvenile palms when planted in 2011.  The Royal was 2' of trunk, a large palm as planted is now about 30' overall and is thicker 15' up than it is at the base.  the fallaensis was from Ken Johnson as a 10' juvenile, its 20' overall now and took a little beating from Irma but its cranking out new leaves and starting to shed its boots.  the fallaense is 26-27" and the royal is 27-28" in diameter.  I expect the royal is close to being as thick as it will get, the fallaense appears to still be thickening a bit thel ast year.

[sonoranfans]

Next up a young sabal uresana, starting to swell up at 27" with leaf bases and also a livistona decora with a 27" measurement with leaf bases on.  the yresana was a strap leaf seedling bought with the above causiarum in early 2011 from tejas tropicals and the decora was purchase locally at the same time as a 5 gallon palm.

[sonoranfans]

And finally my largest kentiopsis which has a shoe at 26" that tapers to a smaller trunk quickly.  Lets see your thicker trunks, I know there are some real monsters out there in this community!

[Mike Evans]

Well, I counted 7 beer bottles (dead solders).  How you feeling now Tom?  BTW palms are looking large.  How about some overall shots?

[Kris]

Dear Tom,

Beautiful visuals, Thanks.

Love,

Kris.

 

[Palm Tree Jim]

Perhaps he needed a break after drinking all those beers.....sorry, I mean taking those pictures!

And I agree, would like to see some complete pictures of the palms.

[sonoranfans]

Sorry guys, same bottle, out of beer for now.  But that can be changed...

oops, one more pic of my biggest Beccariophoenix alfredii, 26" with leaf  bases.  Two of my smaller BA in part shade were slightly bent over by Irma.  One more so than the other.  One is already growing back vertically.

[sonoranfans]

Mike, lots of shadows and the feeling of being immersed may limit some pics.  The eyes can readjust to different light levels the camera tends to either washout of be too dark.  But I'll see what I can do to get some pics.  It reminds me a little of your yard 5-6 years ago mike the general feeling of 20'+ palms all around tends to envelope you and cast many shadows.  Its a great feel, but pics are a bit of a challenge.

[sonoranfans]

OK here is  pic in back in the rainforest area.  3rd trunk from the left is the big kentiopsis, but there are two kentiopsis closer.  clear trunk of kentiopsis is 8-11' now.  from the left is a double trunked dypsis pembana, big kentiopsis O., kentiopsis #2, an archie triple, a archie maxima and the smallest kentiopsis.  All these palms lost some bottom leaves due to Irma, but I feel lucky the damage wasnt a lot worse.   

[sonoranfans]

Here is the 33" clean trunk bismarckia.  6 years from a sick 5 gallon I rescued from the home depot.  They were over watering it and it had fungus on all leaves except the spear.  I saw a purple and light green on the spear that made me want to save it.  Palm trees planted facing the street leaves saw the highest winds(60-70 mph for 4-5 hrs) with many bent leaflets, but there was much less damage than the brahea clara and notably less than the C Fallensis facing the street also.  Bismarckia lost 4-5 lower leaves due to wind damage/petiole splitting.

[kinzyjr]

Very nice visuals!  Some very fast growing sabals there!

[sonoranfans]

here is the sabal uresana with bismarckia behind it.  the uresana has become more blue/silver with age.  this was called icy blue by tejas tropicals.  not nearly as fast as the causiarum, but it has a pretty thick trunk even at this size(12-14' overall).