Northernmost trunking Mauritiella in the World - a self-proclaimed record, but can it really be challenged?

[sarasota alex]

The main stem of the Mauritiella armata in front of my house here in Sarasota is finally showing some trunk! 3 years and 2 months after planting it as a 1 gal.

Now I could be wrong, but I'm prettttttty sure there isn't another one trunking north of where I am (or further from the Equator for that matter)! A shame though! Should be tried more often...

[steve99]

 

At 28.1 deg South I think mine is further from the equator.       The secret with growing these is water, and plenty of it.     I run a percentage of my household grey water around mine so the ground is constantly wet

 

[Neil C]

Great looking palm. I might look into hunting on down.

Regards Neil

[sarasota alex]

Great looking palm Steve! I'm still the northernmost!

I found also that it does great in full blasting sun. I've seen people plant them in shade in more tropical climates and they don't grow as well or as fast. Another one I planted in my old yard not far from here in 2012 is doing great still but it's against the house and only gets full sun for a little over half a day - no trunk yet, but more stems - around 12 I think. This one has only 7. 

[Eric in Orlando]

That is awesome, cool palm!

We have one growing outdoors, planted in 2011. Its about 5ft tall now, no trunk yet. It is growing in a very wet, mucky location but in bright shade. It handled last year's cold fine but it is in a very protected location.

[Tingtongthai]

if  anyone has  seeds  let me know, friend of  mine has this  one in Thailand, yours  all  look a  bit green theirs is  quite  blue

[John hovancsek]

Such a neat palm. I almost pulled the trigger on one when I was at florabunda last week but ended up getting mauritia flexuosa instead. The one in the pic is from the hilo zoo

[Moose]

Dick Douglas garden

[DeletedAccount14e83d09a24f]

On 16/8/2018 2:50:56, sarasota alex said:

The main stem of the Mauritiella armata in front of my house here in Sarasota is finally showing some trunk! 3 years and 2 months after planting it as a 1 gal.

Now I could be wrong, but I'm prettttttty sure there isn't another one trunking north of where I am (or further from the Equator for that matter)! A shame though! Should be tried more often...

Nice palms! Although there is one a bit more northernmost and therefore further from the Equator. 

http://www.esacademic.com/dic.nsf/eswiki/836771 or https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetum_de_Santa_Cruz_de_Tenerife#Secciones_biogeogr%C3%A1ficas

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (28º 27' 07'' N) has healthy specimens of Mauritiella Armata. The pages are in Spanish, but I recommend to check at least the 2nd wiki page since it includes all of the species you can find in the garden. It's truly impressive, I would love to visit that place. Unluckily I don't have any separate pic of the Mauritiella, but I know it's there at least before the Palmetum opened (2013) and probably there are various.

The owner of that giant garden (it's kind of a public-private city natural reserve for tropical and subtropical plants/palms/trees) is a member of this forum, but he didn't log-in for years if I am not wrong. I will try to contact him within this forum to see if he can put some pics of the Mauritiellas in Tenerife.

I'm sure there are more across the island.  

 

Edited August 22, 2018 by Alicante

[sarasota alex]

On 8/21/2018, 8:21:54, Alicante said:

Nice palms! Although there is one a bit more northernmost and therefore further from the Equator. 

http://www.esacademic.com/dic.nsf/eswiki/836771 or https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmetum_de_Santa_Cruz_de_Tenerife#Secciones_biogeogr%C3%A1ficas

The Palmetum of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (28º 27' 07'' N) has healthy specimens of Mauritiella Armata. The pages are in Spanish, but I recommend to check at least the 2nd wiki page since it includes all of the species you can find in the garden. It's truly impressive, I would love to visit that place. Unluckily I don't have any separate pic of the Mauritiella, but I know it's there at least before the Palmetum opened (2013) and probably there are various.

The owner of that giant garden (it's kind of a public-private city natural reserve for tropical and subtropical plants/palms/trees) is a member of this forum, but he didn't log-in for years if I am not wrong. I will try to contact him within this forum to see if he can put some pics of the Mauritiellas in Tenerife.

I'm sure there are more across the island.  

 

Thanks Adam! I was not sure whether the one in Tenerife was trunking. It's great if it is. I also planted a Mauritiella in my previous yard in 2012. It's still there and doing great, but no trunk yet. Also some in the Miami area that have been in the ground for longer than mine, don't have a trunk yet, including the one at Fairchild, which doesn't seem to be growing much at all.

[sarasota alex]

On 8/17/2018, 11:39:39, Moose said:

Dick Douglas garden

Moose are you sure? Dick Douglas garden is in Northern California I thought. I would be surprised if a Mauritiella would survive anywhere in California, except for maybe some microclimates in the South. It definitely seems to be more cold and cool sensitive than a Coconut.

[Moose]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2018‎ ‎4‎:‎45‎:‎19‎, sarasota alex said:

Moose are you sure? Dick Douglas garden is in Northern California I thought. I would be surprised if a Mauritiella would survive anywhere in California, except for maybe some microclimates in the South. It definitely seems to be more cold and cool sensitive than a Coconut.

I'm sure he would have tried one.

They love swampy conditions. Don't think you could over water one.

[Cindy Adair]

On my wish list to try here as no lack of water.

 Congrats on yours Alex!

[sarasota alex]

It's been 20 months since I posted this, so wanted to post an update on my Mauritiella armata. It gained about 5' (1.5m) in the last 20 months, and the main stem now has about 7' (2m+) of clear trunk. The older it gets, the less our winter temps seem to affect its growth rate. This past winter it grew pretty vigorously. Except in December, when armadillos digging, cut off about 20% of the total root mass. It went into a brief shock and lost a quarter of the leaves within days. Also this palm's visible lack of wind tolerance scares me every time we get severe gusts and it tends to lose leaves prematurely in high winds.

 

 

Edited April 30, 2020 by sarasota alex
Fixed file format

[Cindy Adair]

Wow! It looks great! Thanks.

[sarasota alex]

3 minutes ago, Cindy Adair said:

Wow! It looks great! Thanks.

Thanks Cindy! Have you ended up getting one?

[Zeeth]

That thing got huge!

[Cindy Adair]

30 minutes ago, sarasota alex said:

Thanks Cindy! Have you ended up getting one?

Not yet.