Cold damaged palms in habitat?

[palmsOrl]

Does anyone have photos or accounts of cold/freeze damaged palms growing in their native range/habitat?

I remember seeing photos posted on this forum of Florida royal palms with cold damage after the freezes of 2010 in the Fakahatchee and surrounding areas.

Any others?

[GottmitAlex]

7 minutes ago, palmsOrl said:

Does anyone have photos or accounts of cold/freeze damaged palms growing in their native range/habitat?

I remember seeing photos posted on this forum of Florida royal palms with cold damage after the freezes of 2010 in the Fakahatchee and surrounding areas.

Any others?

Then it's not their habitat. 

They were possibly naturalized?

[Zeeth]

14 minutes ago, GottmitAlex said:

Then it's not their habitat. 

They were possibly naturalized?

It's definitely their habitat, just the northern limit (though they've been described even further north in the past).

[palmsOrl]

Yeah, Roystonea regia/elata is definitely native to parts of the Fl Everglades.  The photos I saw were definitely native habitat photos and the freeze/frost damage was mild to moderate foliage damage. 

[Zeeth]

Here are the pics being discussed (courtesy of kylecawazafla):

 

[PalmatierMeg]

Cosmetic damage only. They will outgrow it quickly come spring.

[Alberto]

23 hours ago, GottmitAlex said:

Then it's not their habitat. 

They were possibly naturalized?

In the past I saw natural flora of my region like orchids, some trees, etc, specially young plants, with some degree of damage after very hard freezes. I also remember that an older  resident of the municipalty of Reserva told me that in the historical freeze of 1975 in South Brazil, the native population of Euterpe edulis in that place, suffered various degrees of damage.

[MOlivera]

Alberto, do you remember what orchid species were in the area and how cold it got? 

[sarasota alex]

The rainforest around the Iguazu Falls falls in the zone 10a and has experienced hard freezes in the past, including multiple occurrences in the -4C to -5C (23-25F) range. Although I've never seen any pictures of freeze damage there, I'm sure there was quite a bit, especially to the native Euterpe edulis population. I could be wrong of course and they are hardier than I thought.

[NC_Palms]

During the harsh winter of 2018, many naturally growing sabal minors were damaged. It seems expected for sabal minors (and other native plants) to get some cold damage once every few decades, but nothing every cold enough to kill the palm. According to Gary Hollar, sabal palmettos on BHI will get damaged or get killed when rare, prolonged freezes hit North Carolina's southernmost coast. Otherwise, BHI is one of those islands that can go a decade without seeing frost, so plants there are especially not adapted to subfreezing temperatures

 

Freeze damage on wild sabal minors at Goose Creek State Park, NC  March 2018. All the wild palms in Beaufort County will make full recovery in the spring. 

. 

[palmsOrl]

Interesting responses.  I have no idea it got cold enough this past winter in North Carolina to damage native Sabal minor.

As for BHI, it hard to believe that a place that can go a decade between frosts can occasionally get cold enough to damage or kill Sabal palmetto.

I would think BHI would have to get cold enough most years for frost/light freezes.  I bet the average annual low is in the 25-30F range.

[PalmTreeDude]

Wow, it must have been really cold for a Sabal minor to get damaged in habitat! I did some more research on this topic and like NC_Palms said, cold damage on native plants is rare, but not unheard of and does only cosmetic damage that will be out grown. I have seen newer videos of Sabal minor from the past two months on YouTube in N.C. and they all had a full head of fronds that were completely green, it looked like this never happened. 

 

@NC_Palms, are those strap leaf Sabal minor in the background of your picture with no damage? I also see one with only tip burn (from what I can see). 

Edited October 2, 2018 by PalmTreeDude
Grammar Error Edits

[NC_Palms]

22 hours ago, palmsOrl said:

Interesting responses.  I have no idea it got cold enough this past winter in North Carolina to damage native Sabal minor.

As for BHI, it hard to believe that a place that can go a decade between frosts can occasionally get cold enough to damage or kill Sabal palmetto.

I would think BHI would have to get cold enough most years for frost/light freezes.  I bet the average annual low is in the 25-30F range.

It's very rare but not unheard of. The last time any fatalities happened on BHI was in the early 1900's. The average low in January is around 34º.

 

20 hours ago, PalmTreeDude said:

Wow, it must have been really cold for a Sabal minor to get damaged in habitat! I did some more research on this topic and like NC_Palms said, cold damage on native plants is rare, but not unheard of and does only cosmetic damage that will be out grown. I have seen newer videos of Sabal minor from the past two months on YouTube in N.C. and they all had a full head of fronds that were completely green, it looked like this never happened. 

 

@NC_Palms, are those strap leaf Sabal minor in the background of your picture with no damage? I also see one with only tip burn (from what I can see). 

2

An entire week below 32º will definitely cause some damage to sabal minors. Most had a little tip damage and others seemed heavily scarred. Goose Creek State Park is in the Belhaven area, which is interestingly the coldest area in Eastern North Carolina. 

[palmsOrl]

The above map demonstrates well why so many tropical species are relegated to the southern tip of Florida.

[NC_Palms]

On 10/3/2018, 2:04:57, palmsOrl said:

The above map demonstrates well why so many tropical species are relegated to the southern tip of Florida.

I once heard that some tropical plants used to be naturally found as far north as Saint Augustine but were killed off during the freezes in the 80's. 

[Alberto]

On 27/09/2018 23:49:39, MOlivera said:

Alberto, do you remember what orchid species were in the area and how cold it got? 

I don´t know how cold it was in that specific year, but I know that all the coffee plantations of north Paraná [Reserva is colder and not a coffee region] were totally destroyed in that year. I remember that I collected a Oncidium gardneri there ...