Chamaedorea costaricana

[Darold Petty]

This species, while fairly common, seems not to receive much attention.  I want to illustrate how well it actually grows, even here in a warmth-deprived microclimate.  I was gifted some seeds from Perry Glenn, (SLO Palms) in 2009. The plants have now produced mature seed in just eight years, seed to seed.  When I first recognized how well they grew I asked Perry for additional seeds.  Sadly, he told me that one gender of his palms had died, and thus he could not produce more seed.  Therefore these seeds from the sparse first crop will be sent back to Perry ! 

It is also noteworthy to show the increased vigor of the new stems after the palms are released from pots and planted into rich, moist soil.  In this photo the original pot stem is narrow and dark green, while the new stems are large and light green.

  A feature of this species is the small, papery appendage at the top of the leafbase.  This is a 'ligule' or sometimes called an 'auricle' and it is diagnostic for the species within the genus. A true C. costaricana will always have this detail, as do many hybrids with C. costaricana as a parent.  No ligule, no C. costaricana blood.

[Alberto]

I have some plants that also produced seeds some years ago. Unfortunatelly they suffered badly with a harder freeze and lost most of there canes. Does the last pic show the ligule?

Edited January 22, 2018 by Alberto

[quaman58]

Great pictures of neat palm Darold. Funny, I've had a number of them knocking around in pots for some years. They seem to hate being contained in pots for too long & I lost a couple of them. So about 10 days ago, I planted my first in ground specimen in a filtered light area. Hopefully it'll respond like yours has.

[Darold Petty]

Yes, Alberto, the fourth photo is the ligule. 

[Alberto]

Thanks! 

[XYZ]

Darold:

Thanks for posting on a wonderful ornamental palm that now seems underappreciated in cultivation. I’ll post some photos of some of my old plants tomorrow.

Because of its wide range there is, no doubt, some variability as regards temperature tolerance. From memory, populations from the volcanic cloud forests of western Guatemala occur at highest elevations for the sp. (~2,800 m/9,100’) and those seem bullet-proof in subtropical cool, wet climates. I suspect most plants in the US originated from CRican stock. They do, as you know, get massive with age when happy and can occupy a big footprint within a decade of being established.

In Guatemala, known as “Kip” (pronounced shortened “Keep”) by the highland Maya and were once very popular as enclosed patio plants in colonial homes. In habitat, often occur near or alongside C. nubium. While once abundant and conspicuous in cloud forests on both slopes, now rather localized in northern part of their range.

J

[Phoenikakias]

Darold, is the cane in the last picture subjected to air layering? 

If you happen to cultivate also C pochutlensis, which is said to be very popular in California, have observed any differencies in the horticultural needs between those two spp? 

[Jim in Los Altos]

Darold, this one you gifted me a few years ago has been a rocket. I'm limiting the number of stems to keep it a bit open. Thanks again.

[Mandrew968]

No surprise this is a good grower for you guys-it does just how Jay says in the Costa Rican cloud forests. I don't see them in hot South Florida; brought back seed before and they germinated and then faded away before being anything...

[Missi]

6 minutes ago, Mandrew968 said:

No surprise this is a good grower for you guys-it does just how Jay says in the Costa Rican cloud forests. I don't see them in hot South Florida; brought back seed before and they germinated and then faded away before being anything...

That's good to know. I put it on my palm wishlist yesterday, but now I will remove it. Thanks.

[XYZ]

Mandrew, C seifrizii seems to provide a very similar visual impact at sea level when allowed to run. I think people are so used to seeing them grown potbound that they dismiss them as being too dense and short. Wild colonies look amazing when undisturbed. Clustering, lowland ecotypes of C tepejilote probably even better, but appear to be uncommon in cultivation. C schippii and a few of the Gulf coast foothill Mexican spp also excel under your conditions.

C costaricana almost entirely displaced as a garden plant in Guatemala by Dypsis lutescens, apparently a United Fruit Co. introduction. These are everwhere in country now.

[Mandrew968]

Jay, seifrizii is a total weed in South Florida-think its even on the invasive species list, now. Clustering pacaya palm is indeed a great palm and not often seen. Schippii is quite rare and I have only seen one specimen locally. From what I noticed, it runs more than seifrizii.

[XYZ]

Old costaricana (quezalteca) colony as garden plant in Guatemalan central highlands.

Mandrew: schippii worked fine for me as a very tidy and attractive garden palm when started from small starts of WC material in pots, but in habitat they do wander quite a bit between stems.

[Mandrew968]

Chamaedorea tepejilote is a much taller palm than seifrizii is. It's also much more robust looking than either costaricana or seifrizii. Costaricana can get quite tall but not as thick as pacaya palm.

[Missi]

3 hours ago, stone jaguar said:

Mandrew, C seifrizii seems to provide a very similar visual impact at sea level when allowed to run. I think people are so used to seeing them grown potbound that they dismiss them as being too dense and short. Wild colonies look amazing when undisturbed. Clustering, lowland ecotypes of C tepejilote probably even better, but appear to be uncommon in cultivation. C schippii and a few of the Gulf coast foothill Mexican spp also excel under your conditions.

C costaricana almost entirely displaced as a garden plant in Guatemala by Dypsis lutescens, apparently a United Fruit Co. introduction. These are everwhere in country now.

I wish Palmpedia had photos of wild C. seifrizii. I'd like to see it growing as you describe. Pretty much all their photos are of tight clumps. I have the suckering tepejilote. Would that be the lowland one? It put out seed right before Hurricane Irma, all seed was lost.

[Missi]

2 hours ago, Mandrew968 said:

Jay, seifrizii is a total weed in South Florida-think its even on the invasive species list, now. Clustering pacaya palm is indeed a great palm and not often seen. Schippii is quite rare and I have only seen one specimen locally. From what I noticed, it runs more than seifrizii.

In S. FL it's only reported invasive in Broward, Dade, and Monroe at the moment. I personally have never seen it invasive in Collier.

[Missi]

Tepe has the added bonus of the beautiful yellow stripe on the petiole 

 

P.S. Sorry I didn't multi-quote 

[XYZ]

1 hour ago, Missi said:

I wish Palmpedia had photos of wild C. seifrizii. I'd like to see it growing as you describe. Pretty much all their photos are of tight clumps. I have the suckering tepejilote. Would that be the lowland one? It put out seed right before Hurricane Irma, all seed was lost.

Missi: I can't find my good habitat shots of C. seifrizii, but here's some of lowland colonial tepe as the dominant understory plant in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve. These are at the Yaxha NP archaelogical site in NE Guatemala, near the Belizean border. This same habitat supports good populations C. oblongata, seifrizii, ernesti-augustii, elegans and neurochlamys.

Not a great shot, but here is a big old C. seifrizii that was left standing after forest cover was removed around ruins at Tikal NP, same region. For scale, the Anthurium schlechtendalii at its feet are albout 1.20 m/~4' across. This colony is being held tight by park staff using weed-whackers and machetes.

J

[Jan Jo]

Hi! Hope it's ok to hijack this thread about Ch. Costaricana with a couple of pics of my Chamaedorea Seifrizii, since they were being mentioned here too 

It's never been one of my favourite palms in my garden, but just today I pruned my Schefflera which is growing next to it, and thought it looked nice... half the stems are growing outwards towards the light, under canopy...

... and the other half I've used Schefflera branches to direct inwards, towards the shade under a pergola...

They do not fair well at all here in full southern Spanish sun, even though I'm only a mile from the coast... mostly shade is a must for this species here..

J

[Rivera]

I have young Chamaedorea costaricana seedlings in this small community pot, which is still in a lightly vented humidity dome with moderate bottom heat, generally keeping the the soil around 55-62F at night and 70-78F during the day.

Should I remove them, or do they benefit by staying in longer? They'd still be in a protected area, not threatened by cold below 50F or excess sun.

Other recommendations, like when to separate, are welcome as I'm inexperienced in this regard. 

Much thanks in advance 🙏

-Chris

[Darold Petty]

Chris, they can easily stay together until the first leaf (eophyll) is fully expanded.  Then gently wash them apart in a larger container of water.  

[Patrick]

Chris, let then grow up a little more before you pot them up separately. Still too small at this point.

 

Darold, thanks. Any time you want to do more of these mini crash course/ tutorials please do. I always enjoyed you being the auctioneer at the meetings. I was never great at identifications but you always nailed it with a nice additional follow up regarding identification indicators with whatever was up for grabs. Thanks.

I have one of these in a 5 gallon that still needs to get planted out. Perhaps this will be the year, along with the microspadix. Over by where my puppy dog used to nap.... ok, where's the weepy face emoj? 

[palmnut-fry]

This looks like the structure on my Metallica's I had some years back. I was dumb and let it set seed but didn't plant them. Beautiful in themselves but I should've tried to germinate as this genus is tough.

The last stem perished after nearly 20 years @ around 5ft. 

You should post some pics of the entire plant!

Cheers 

[Darold Petty]

In my original post establishing this thread I stated "This is a 'ligule' or sometimes called an 'auricle' and it is diagnostic for the species within the genus. "

This is not true,   after more thorough research of Don Hodel's book  "Chamaedorea Palms"  I have realized that a second species,  Chamaedorea quezalteca has a ligule also,  and that  its ligule is even larger and more pronounced than that of C. costa-ricana.   See plate 81b on page 189.  Mea culpa !  

  However, C. quezalteca is a very rare species,  and it is still most likely that a ligule presence will signify C. costa-ricana.  Cheers !! 

[tim_brissy_13]

Hi @Darold Petty. Hoping for your input as a Chamaedorea guru. 
 

I’ve had this palm for about 5 years now, originally purchased as Chamaedorea microspadix. I haven’t questioned the ID until now (although I did think it was quite robust for a microspadix) but it has now produced some fruit which is black (microspadix known to be red). 
 

So I thought I’d take a closer look at all of the key differentiating features, thinking it might actually be costaricana or potchutlensis. And I’ve found that this palm has ligules/auricles as you’ve described above. 
 

Questions

Does this mean it must be C costaricana (noting that quezalteca is now considered a synonym)?

It is a female with no nearby male. Would this impact the fruit colour if not fertilised? There actually are formed seeds inside, but I have yet tried to germinate (there are male C klotzschianas nearby so might be worth a go). The seed has interesting curved ring marking, almost like a basketball or tennis ball. 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

2 hours ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

Hi @Darold Petty. Hoping for your input as a Chamaedorea guru. 
 

I’ve had this palm for about 5 years now, originally purchased as Chamaedorea microspadix. I haven’t questioned the ID until now (although I did think it was quite robust for a microspadix) but it has now produced some fruit which is black (microspadix known to be red). 
 

So I thought I’d take a closer look at all of the key differentiating features, thinking it might actually be costaricana or potchutlensis. And I’ve found that this palm has ligules/auricles as you’ve described above. 
 

Questions

Does this mean it must be C costaricana (noting that quezalteca is now considered a synonym)?

It is a female with no nearby male. Would this impact the fruit colour if not fertilised? There actually are formed seeds inside, but I have yet tried to germinate (there are male C klotzschianas nearby so might be worth a go). The seed has interesting curved ring marking, almost like a basketball or tennis ball. 

Yours is costaricana 100%

[Darold Petty]

These images look exactly like my C. costaricana, and the seed looks full sized and normal. 

 I can't predict what the seedling might resemble if you have an F1 hybrid from C. klotzschiana as the pollen donor.

[tim_brissy_13]

14 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

These images look exactly like my C. costaricana, and the seed looks full sized and normal. 

 I can't predict what the seedling might resemble if you have an F1 hybrid from C. klotzschiana as the pollen donor.

Thanks Darold you’ve confirmed my suspicions. I’ll update my label and may give the few seeds I get off this a go.