Livistona mariae ssp rigida volunteers

[tropicbreeze]

I get a few different volunteer palms here but was surprised when these started turning up. It's not a palm you commonly see grown around the place. The nearest natural occurrence is about 20 kms away, as the crow flies. Never thought birds would spread them, otherwise you'd expect they'd be everywhere.

They only seem to come up in the harshest spots where there's no extra water and out in the full sun on hard ground. A few have germinated in good locations where they can stay but some have to be removed.

[Stevetoad]

That’s awesome! I only get washies, Sabal minor and guavas.  I’m afraid if I had your problem I would just let them grow. I love this livistona. I got a big one in my front yard with about ten feet of trunk but no flowers yet. 

[greysrigging]

8 hours ago, tropicbreeze said:

They only seem to come up in the harshest spots where there's no extra water and out in the full sun on hard ground. A few have germinated in good locations where they can stay but some have to be removed. 

Funny you should say that..... I dug one up outside the Hibiscus Tavern last year. It was growing in a crack between the concrete gutter and the ashphalt road. OK it was in the wet, but even so it was a pretty harsh place for a seed to germinate. And yeah, where did it come from ? Not that common in suburbia..... 

[quaman58]

Yeah that's cool. I bought one years ago, thinking that they would retain some of that neat red color. Still a nice palm, although I can't tell the difference between it & my neighbor's L. decora at this point. Like Washingtonia, they seem to be able to grow just about anywhere.

[Stevetoad]

6 hours ago, quaman58 said:

Yeah that's cool. I bought one years ago, thinking that they would retain some of that neat red color. Still a nice palm, although I can't tell the difference between it & my neighbor's L. decora at this point. Like Washingtonia, they seem to be able to grow just about anywhere.

if you taste the spikes you will notice that decora is slightly more sour. thats the easy way to tell them apart .

[quaman58]

Ha! Good one Steve, I'll give that a go this afternoon.  I know for sure on the L. mariae that my head bleeds a lot when I run into the fronds.  

[tropicbreeze]

I was given a couple in pots some years ago, totally green. Probably from growing mainly in shade and getting well watered and fertilised. I planted them out in my (non-perennial) swamp. First two dry seasons I gave them some water fortnightly. Now they only get wet season water, in fact they sit in it during the wet. They've never shown any inclination towards redness. Out in nature lots of the small plants are green as well. I get the impression redness develops more in harsher conditions.

The nearest natural popular to here are along a river and I don't recall any young plants being red. It's more shaded and well watered there. Probably should do a thorough specific search to find out for sure. Although, there is a population around 130 kms east of here growing along a river interspersed with Livistona benthamii and some of the L. m ssp rigida seedlings there were reddish.

[howfam]

On 6/2/2020 at 10:23 PM, tropicbreeze said:

I get a few different volunteer palms here but was surprised when these started turning up. It's not a palm you commonly see grown around the place. The nearest natural occurrence is about 20 kms away, as the crow flies. Never thought birds would spread them, otherwise you'd expect they'd be everywhere.

They only seem to come up in the harshest spots where there's no extra water and out in the full sun on hard ground. A few have germinated in good locations where they can stay but some have to be removed.

Can you get pictures of the mother trees?

[tropicbreeze]

15 hours ago, howfam said:

Can you get pictures of the mother trees?

Can't say for sure where the parent plants are but I suspect they're probably amongst the natural occurrence about 20 kms from here. I can get photos of those.