Bismarckia nobilis, youngest/smallest plant to flower?

[Palmarum]

What is the youngest, or smallest specimen of Bismarck Palm that you have seen in flower?

 

I was asked that question when I was out at Searle Brothers Nursery taking photos one day this summer. I had already made my rounds photographing plants for display cards when Jeff steered his golf cart over to a full-sun section of the nursery, and surprised me with this...

 

- A small, containerized Bismarck Palm in flower.

- I was quite surprised. I have seen some strange things with palms over the years, including smaller species maturing early in pots, but this was an extreme case of a massive species maturing so small. The plant is small for the 15 gal. pot it was in, with a base about 6-inches (15cm) in diameter. I asked all the pertinent questions I could think of, to Jeff's knowledge, the plant had not been damaged, burned, chemically treated, abused, yelled at, etc. It was growing in a long row of similar-sized plants of the same species, out in full sun, supplied with regular irrigation while sitting on groundcloth... just like hundreds of other plants.

- It had managed to send up an inflorescence in short order, as Jeff had noticed it only a short while prior to my visit. The specimen is female, probably the only juvenile Bismarck Palm to get a gender I.D. on the tag. I only thought of it now, but I wonder if the buds ever did anything. There are male flowering Bismarck's around. I will get an update the next time I am out at the nursery to see if this oddity became any weirder.

 

Ryan

[Really full garden]

I think my earliest to flower was just starting to show a few inches of clear trunk. About 7 years from seed.

[kinzyjr]

@Palmarum That's pretty impressive!  I see a lot of them flower here, but they are all behemoths.

[rprimbs]

I don't want to be mean, but that's not the healthiest looking Bismarkia I have ever seen..

[Jeff Searle]

56 minutes ago, rprimbs said:

I don't want to be mean, but that's not the healthiest looking Bismarkia I have ever seen..

None taken. But if you grew palms..... and understand growing palms/plants, yes the leaves are a bit smaller compared to all the other Bismarckias in the row, but this because so much energy has been put into this flowering stage in stead of putting out normal size leaves. It's a sacrifice.