Chamaedorea tenella flowering

[PalmatierMeg]

While continuing spring workups in my back yard jungle I came across this little Chamaedorea tenella (now lumped with geoniformis) putting out yellow flowers that look like tiny yellow beads on a string. I'm going to hazard a guess that this palm is a male. It is less than 18" tall and has a stem 1/4" in diameter. I've found them not to be difficult grows if treated correctly, which, for me, is like my Cham tuercks. Potted, kept moist in deep shade under canopy and pestered as little as possible.

Chamaedorea tenella

[Alberto]

Interesting and beautifull inflorescence. How cold hardy is this species?

[Palmarum]

Perfectly grown and very purdy.

Ryan

[Jungle Yard]

Beautifully grown plant. (as usual)

 

[gyuseppe]

12 hours ago, Alberto said:

Interesting and beautifull inflorescence. How cold hardy is this species?

 mine, still small, have resisted -4 celsius, but in a very sheltered place
 

[palmfriend]

Beautiful!

The plant looks happy and seems to be well treated - my congrats, Meg!

I am so happy that I got a hand on two of those during the last year which 

I planted out after some time under two young, very slowly growing Howeas.

Tomorrow I am going to take a closer look at them, since spring/early summer

is knocking on the door - it is about time for a general check 

Best regards -

Lars

 

 

[PalmatierMeg]

14 hours ago, Alberto said:

Interesting and beautifull inflorescence. How cold hardy is this species?

Gyuseppe has the answer. I don't get close to -4C. I suspect this species, like Cham tuerck., is sensitive to high heat, esp. at night. And he is correct that these plants must be sheltered under deep green canopy.

[LJG]

Meg, that’s a happy plant. One thing to watch out for is keep flowering Tenella away from Geoniformis as they hybridize super easy. In fact most my Tenella seed has resulted in hybrids as confirmed by Hodel. Sadly I am unable to stop this because my colonies are planted in the ground and I would need to dig them up and isolate. I also find plants popping up in the garden. I understand they are now lumped, but the two are very different. I love the much smaller stature of Tenella. 

[PalmatierMeg]

56 minutes ago, LJG said:

Meg, that’s a happy plant. One thing to watch out for is keep flowering Tenella away from Geoniformis as they hybridize super easy. In fact most my Tenella seed has resulted in hybrids as confirmed by Hodel. Sadly I am unable to stop this because my colonies are planted in the ground and I would need to dig them up and isolate. I also find plants popping up in the garden. I understand they are now lumped, but the two are very different. I love the much smaller stature of Tenella. 

I like the tenellas too and don't quite understand why they were lumped with geoniformis - the differences are obvious. One of my females has produced seeds in the past but I've never gotten them to germinate. I have a mess of tiny C. geoniformis seedlings I germinated last year and they are slow.

[Palmensammler]

Meg,

Really nice looking plant. I love the chamaedorea palms and try to collect as many as possible but that's hard work as in Europe seeds are very rare.

Also the one from Giuseppe looks wonderful.

Whenever you have seeds left let me know.

Thanks

Eckhard

 

[PalmatierMeg]

1 hour ago, Palmensammler said:

Meg,

Really nice looking plant. I love the chamaedorea palms and try to collect as many as possible but that's hard work as in Europe seeds are very rare.

Also the one from Giuseppe looks wonderful.

Whenever you have seeds left let me know.

Thanks

Eckhard

 

I could never be sure they were viable. I don't know if this species needs an insect pollinator that doesn't exist in FL. Another factor: tiny palms produce fewer seeds, maybe a few dozen for C. tenella. A real bummer.

[palmfriend]

Hello there,

Today I checked my two babies, as mentioned well protected by two Howeas...

Closing in...

and number two:

Changing position...

Zooming in, ...Ola!

and the other one...

"Something" is on its way!! 

Meg, thank you for giving me a push with this thread - I apologize for the flood of photos -

best regards -

Lars

 

[Palmensammler]

Hi Lars,

thank you for the pictures. Looking very good under these Kentias. Let's hope you have a male and female plant.

Keep us updated

Eckhard

[gyuseppe]

3 hours ago, palmfriend said:

Hello there,

Today I checked my two babies, as mentioned well protected by two Howeas...

Closing in...

and number two:

Changing position...

Zooming in, ...Ola!

and the other one...

"Something" is on its way!! 

Meg, thank you for giving me a push with this thread - I apologize for the flood of photos -

best regards -

Lars

 

 

Lars yours are not chamaedorea tenella!
but  am chamaedorea metallica
but also chamaedorea metallica are very beautiful

[gyuseppe]

Edited April 4, 2019 by gyuseppe

[Pal Meir]

15 minutes ago, gyuseppe said:

Lars yours are not chamaedorea tenella!
but  am chamaedorea metallica
but also chamaedorea metallica are very beautiful

That was also my first impression. But we can decide it definitely when the palms will be flowering.

[palmfriend]

1 hour ago, gyuseppe said:

 

Lars yours are not chamaedorea tenella!
but  am chamaedorea metallica
but also chamaedorea metallica are very beautiful

To be honest, I had my doubts as well when I saw Meg's plant!

My Chamaedoreas had always this silvery, metallic look - but they were labeled as C. "ﾃﾈﾗ"→"te-ne-ra"(tenella) in our home depot...

However, thank you very much for clarifying -

best regards

Lars

[Beespalms]

Meg,  that is a male plant.  The females have a single branch flower that is half the length of the males.  I had a really nice colony of 7 plants before the freeze last year that would produce flowers twice a year.  They would typically self pollinate each other, and the females would produce 5+ seeds on each inflorescence.  However, if I took the time to self pollinate, I would get 10-20 seeds per inflorescence. 

The seeds ripen to a black color.  I would let them fall naturally and sprout on the ground, then repot after they had 1 full leaf.  I had way better germination success letting the seeds fall naturally, opposed to cleaning them and trying to sprout them in community bins.  When I would sprout them and raise them up, I would get 80-90% males.  The females seem much madder to come by.  Not sure if this is just my experience or a common occurrence for this species.