mature Jubaea X Butia downtown Orlando

[Eric in Orlando]

My wife and I were downtown Orlando early this morning to run a 5k. We were at Lake Eola Park. There is a big Jubaea X Butia growing there. It looks very good, they are keeping it well fertilized and not overtrimmed. 

[Eric in Orlando]

[Flow]

That is a fabulous specimen, thanks for showing! 

[kinzyjr]

Love the combo of the stout trunk and slightly recurved fronds.  Thanks for sharing!

Wonder if the seeds are sterile like Mules??

[Steve in Florida]

The soil there is pretty good.  About 7% clay in the top 2.5 feet, then 25% clay with a lot of silt down to at least 7 feet of depth.

[Eric in Orlando]

55 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

Love the combo of the stout trunk and slightly recurved fronds.  Thanks for sharing!

Wonder if the seeds are sterile like Mules??

I've tried hundreds of seeds with no germination. And the ones I cut open had no embryo. So they are sterile from this palm. 

[Steve in Florida]

54 minutes ago, kinzyjr said:

Love the combo of the stout trunk and slightly recurved fronds.  Thanks for sharing!

Wonder if the seeds are sterile like Mules??

F1 self fertilized seed is more than 99% sterile. F2 is a little better.

[RJ]

Very nice, thank you for posting. A few of these are on my wish list. 

 

 

[Kenarr09]

6 hours ago, Eric in Orlando said:

I've tried hundreds of seeds with no germination. And the ones I cut open had no embryo. So they are sterile from this palm. 

They are selfsterile but if is there any other Jubaea or Butia near will produce tons of viable seeds! 

Edited December 2, 2018 by Kenarr09

[bubba]

That is an outstanding specimen!. Note that smooth trunk. From a distance it almost resembles a Phoenix canary.

On the UF campus, there is an ancient palm that is almost identical to this specimen but it may be 3x as tall. I am certain that Merrill Wilcox played some role in the  specimen on the UF campus.

[Swolte]

Wow, best one I have seen thus far. Any idea how old?

[Eric in Orlando]

6 hours ago, Swolte said:

Wow, best one I have seen thus far. Any idea how old?

I first came across this palm around 1994 and it was nearly the same size then. 

[Matthew92]

Cool, I noticed that same palm when I visited Lake Eola Park for the first time a couple months ago. It is indeed a very nice specimen.

[Alicehunter2000]

I see old large specimens of B. odorata with smooth trunks sometimes up here .... you positive it is a hybrid Eric....seems strange somebody would have been hybridizing so many years ago...that palms got to be 50+ years old.

[Eric in Orlando]

I'm not sure where it came from. The park was established in the 1890s and are or has been quite a few interesting plant specimens located there. Mulford Foster, the famous plant collector/explorer had a nursery a few blocks away from the 1930s-50s. Maybe it came from him. Foster passed away in 1978. In the mid 1980s his wife donated/sold some palm and cycad specimens to Leu Gardens. Included were several X Butyagrus and a trunked Jubaea chilensis. He may have been making some crosses decades ago. There is also an odd Sabal nearby in the park.

[Alicehunter2000]

Interesting back story .... maybe...would be interesting to see the spath/flower ....maybe someone can chime in that knows what the hybrid reproductive parts are supposed to look like. Regardless...it's a fine specimen

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Id love to see a closeup of the flowers.

[Stevetoad]

very cool. looks like a mini jubea

[FishEyeAquaculture]

Similar in size and appearance to some Mules I noticed today. These are definitely “old school” mules, planted between the SeaWorld HR building and Renaissance Orlando. A quick property records search, via google, says the parking lot was developed in 1991. 

[FishEyeAquaculture]

Helps if photos of said mule are attached....

[howfam]

This Palm has been featured on this forum before as Butia x Jubaea. It is a true hybrid with the seeds being non-viable (at least for me), and the unarmed petioles are a dead give away.