The Ballad of Big SabAl

[Grasswing]

Hello everybody,

seven years ago, I published a topic about the Botanical garden of the Charles University.  The interior of the tropical greenhouse is full of rare and very old cycads (around 150 years) along with other plants.

The botanical garden itself was founded in 1775, the first greenhouse complex dates back to 1882! It was rebuild many times and severely damaged in 1945 during WW2 bombings. The greenhouses were rebuild in 1949 and renovated in 1996.

Why am I writing this? 

One of the biggest trees you could find there was huge Sabal sp. - probably bermudana, which completely dominated the tropical part of the greenhouse. It was flowering and seeding periodically. It is hard to guess its age, maybe you could suggest something along with the species, but it was definitely pretty old fella.

  These pictures were taken in July 2013

 

                                                                                                                                      

Unfortunately, in 2018 I found out that they cut it down completely, leaving only parts of its majestic trunk scattered around. It was a huge shock for me, since it was my favourite palm in the area, and I always admired how big it grew. I can see the reason behind this drastic procedure, it was probably lifting the roof of the greenhouse but still it is a shame, it was a legacy of past Czech and maybe even German botanists.

 

Remains of the trunk with seedlings

As I said before it was a seeding exemplar and even though they changed the substrate around the remains of the tree, I could notice small seedling coming up.  My palm hunter instincts turned on and I started thinking how to save atleast few, to keep the offspring of this historical tree alive. I asked the greenhouse curator, if I could dig few up and he helped me out! I was kind of surprised he was so willing to help. (the other option would be a bit less legal haha ).

Few pictures of the babies, note that I was a bit sceptic about their survival, since they were not in a great state:

Fortunately my scepticism was wrong, and after two years I have 4 strong Sabal seedlings! They are my favourite plants partly because of the history behind them and I'm looking forward to see them grow.

Even though I called this thread a ballad, the ending is atleast somewhat happy. The memory of this Sabal with live on, and I am sure I'm not the only Czech palm lover who has few plants. The botanical garden has definitely some too. 

Thank you for reading this far, if you have any suggestions about the tree age or species, feel free to comment!

Regards

Ondrej

[Fusca]

Nice work keeping those Sabal seedlings alive!  They don't like being transplanted.  Sorry to hear about the parent palm being removed.  Good to see you are still around posting!

Jon

[Grasswing]

On 4/20/2020 at 10:57 PM, Fusca said:

Nice work keeping those Sabal seedlings alive!  They don't like being transplanted.  Sorry to hear about the parent palm being removed.  Good to see you are still around posting!

Jon

Thank you Jon for your comment!

Yes, I am still around, the season starts now here. 

Regards

Ondrej