Sabel in the desert?

[Palmfarmer]

Just found a row of these just outside the ciry. Its a sabel right? Does not seem to get any irrigation because some of them do very poorly. Can these palms really do okaish on ONLY rainwatwer when the annual rainfall is only 529mm

Edited February 7, 2020 by Palmfarmer

[Silas_Sancona]

  On 2/7/2020 at 11:39 PM, Palmfarmer said:

Just found a row of these just outside the ciry. Its a sabel right? Does not seem to get any irrigation because some of them do very poorly. Can these palms really do okaish on ONLY rainwatwer when the annual rainfall is only 529mm

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Sure looks like a Sabal to my eyes.. Sabal palmetto, or S. mexicana possibly.  As far as whether or not it could survive there, 529mm roughly = out to about 20 inches of rainfall, which is on par with many places in California, and a little more than we get here each year in Phoenix. Out of curiosity, does Durango see moisture from East Pacific Hurricanes during the late summer/ early Fall there? Would think this would help w/ providing moisture during the hottest part of the year. From some maps i've looked over, it seems some moisture does make it over the mountains from Mazatlan occasionally.

While not all that common here, there are some nice specimens around town that do fine/ look good without needing lots of water. S. palmetto is a pretty tough species so i'd say try one, if interested in them.  If you can find any there, Sabal uresana would be another good species to try. Native to the foothill region northwest of you in Sonora and possibly adjacent Chihuahua, west of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Bigger and can produce really blue foliage like many Brahea native to your general region of Mexico. Very tolerant of cold also.

[sonoranfans]

best chance would be if you had summer rains, was dry in the cool season.   Not sure how the grass grows on the median with no water either.  Seems like that would be unusual in such a low rainfall climate.  One thing to remember, most sabals like summer heat to grow their best.  If your summers are cool, look into parajubaea, and ceroxylon(?) they might be happy with a cooler summer.  Nannorrhops ritchieana would be pretty much bullet proof there I bet.

[Palmfarmer]

  On 2/8/2020 at 3:27 PM, sonoranfans said:

best chance would be if you had summer rains, was dry in the cool season.   Not sure how the grass grows on the median with no water either.  Seems like that would be unusual in such a low rainfall climate.  One thing to remember, most sabals like summer heat to grow their best.  If your summers are cool, look into parajubaea, and ceroxylon(?) they might be happy with a cooler summer.  Nannorrhops ritchieana would be pretty much bullet proof therei I bet.

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Not saying i know 100% for sure, but it does appear that way. the grass was yellow. No, this place is pretty hot for being allmost at 2000 meters above sea level. Summers are very hot and it rains the most during that season. The limiting factor in planting something "tropical" is the nightime lows that can creep down to -3 at the most a couple times a year, on the flip side they are very brief and it bounces back to like 10-20c again once the sun warms things up. 

Thanks for the suggestions Parajubea i really like. I have space for two more palms big palms, specificly one fan type palm thats not to wide, and a wide one. So i am thinking about Livestona Chinensis or some sort of Palmetto if i can source on for a good price here, (idieally the blue version) i will also plant a 2 meter tall Bismarck (with leafs )i found selling online for around 300 usd, good price?