Calyptrogyne ghiesbreghtiana

[realarch]

Say that three times as fast as you can. What? 

Anyway, just beautiful little understory palms. From seedling to adult they always look perfect. Not rare or uncommon, but a nice specimen or background palm. The fact that they only get six feet tall, (2m), is a real plus. Mine alternate from simple to entire leaves and the flowers have a strong garlic smell. The natural pollinator are bats, hence the ‘vampire palm’ name, and for years I got only two viable seeds out of thousands of flowers. Then Brazilian cardinals started showing up and are attracted to the flowers, now I get seed all the time. The birds, for whatever reason started migrating from the northern islands in the last few years and are now a common species here in east Hawaii. Enough rambling, here are some photos.

Tim

[realarch]

A couple more, need to touch up the orange paint on the ole shovel.

Tim

[John hovancsek]

Wow. Beautifully grown

[quaman58]

Wow Tim, that is beautiful. I remember trying to grow this one in my area, but just could not get it to go. Funny, I always thought of it as a small understory palm, but using your shovel for scale shows that it’s pretty darn big. Great looking palm...

[Palmarum]

19 hours ago, realarch said:

Say that three times as fast as you can. What? ....

Cal-Lip-Tro ahGhinny  Gees brehg tee-ahna...

It is a lot of syllables. This species is a long time favorite of mine and your plants are flawless. It also grows well here in S. Florida and may be kept perfect in a pot or most landscapes.

We saw this species in habitat during the '08 Biennial in Costa Rica. Seeing a lot of them sprawled across the forest floor was amazing. In addition to being pollinated by bats, the undivided leaves serve as a daytime 'game hide' for them. During a trek along one path, we came across one specimen that had a distinctive folded leaf. It was bent at the rachis and was hanging down, almost like a tent. The attendee group that was there began to guess why it was like that, so we took turns peering under the folded leaf and found a bat, hanging upside down, feet clamped onto the peak of the 'tent'. It knew how to chew the rachis just enough to fold it over, but not to break it, forming its camp for the day. After a couple attempts at taking its photo, we left it to sleep. We pointed it out to the guides and the other attendees and continued on.

Ryan

[realarch]

Thanks Ryan, that is pretty cool. Antidotes like this one adds so much to the general culture and creates interest. I’ll remember that when giving my next palm tour.

Tim

[realarch]

Thanks John, read Ryan’s post above….interesting.

Thanks Bret, maybe a well protected shady spot would work. Probably would make a great potted plant as well.

Tim

[bubba]

Looks like Ryan confirmed its viability in South Florida in an earlier thread!