Dypsis basilonga…Stunning

[realarch]

When I saw this, I thought I was going to need a pacemaker. In all my years looking at palm parts and pieces, I have never seen anything quite like it. John Hovancsek and I were going through the garden when I removed an old leaf sheath off this Dypsis basilonga only to reveal the first spathe since planting. In this case, a picture is worth much more than a thousand words. 

Tim

[awkonradi]

Wow!

[Kim]

Woohoo! Nature is freaky! All those juicy colors. 

I'm surprised it didn't spring into action, the way it's coiled. Yikes! 

[Gonzer]

[Frond-friend42]

That inflorescence looks like a colorful diagram of the descending colon

[WaianaeCrider]

thought there were no snakes in Hawai`i   LOL

 

[realarch]

It does looks serpent like, coiled, ready to strike. Over a 24 hour period it’s lost a bit of color, but still looks spectacular.

Greg, my Mauritia flexuosa is the real Audrey 2 in the garden. You almost get the feeling you can hear it growing and leaning your direction. 

Tim

[John hovancsek]

I love this palm so much and am privileged to share this exciting palm moment with you

[Rick Kelley]

Looks like this crop of FB Dypsis basilonga seedlings is just reaching puberty.  It's been in the ground four years from a 1 gallon pot and is about 8-10 ft tall. Yesterday I was weedwhacking around it and didn't see anything unusual.  This morning I saw that an old frond had fallen off overnight.  As I grabbed it to head to the compost pile, I noticed its first attempt at blooming.  Not quite as red as Tim's, but still quite eye-catching.  So much to love about this species. Highly recommended if your climate allows. The black gunk at the top of each crownshaft is black gunk.  Doesn't seem to be causing any problem, so I leave it alone.

[realarch]

Looking good Rick. Mine must have had a tight leaf sheath hence the zig zag look. I think your is supposed to look like, more like D. saintelucei .

Tim

[Matt in OC]

I’m so jealous. Mine don’t like our modestly cold winters. 

[realarch]

So, this palm is putting out another spathe after the first one, which was beautifully deformed, just dried up. This is how it’s supposed to look.

Nice color.

Tim

[Kim]

I dunno, the first one was shockingly beautiful, this one is just ordinarily beautiful.

[Billeb]

I wanna plant one of these! 

[Tracy]

22 hours ago, Billeb said:

I wanna plant one of these! 

Give it a try.  While I have a long way to go to achieve what Tim and others have done in Hawaii with this species, they can survive in California too.  Filtered sun tucked in with some other palms and some overhead protection from my neighbor's Howea f'ss on the other side of the fence. 

[Billeb]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

Give it a try.  While I have a long way to go to achieve what Tim and others have done in Hawaii with this species, they can survive in California too.  Filtered sun tucked in with some other palms and some overhead protection from my neighbor's Howea f'ss on the other side of the fence. 

Oooh…nice! I’m actually picking up a 3G tomorrow. Plan is to baby it until Spring and find somewhere to wedge it in the garden. Thanks. 
 

-dale

[realarch]

Tracy, that looks darn good! Promising future, hopefully it will be more widely grown in So. Cal.

Tim

[Hilo Jason]

I’m happy to join the “first spathe” club with one of my Dypsis Basilonga.  Just noticed this a couple days ago. 

 

[realarch]

Oooo La la!

Tim

[Rick Kelley]

Just a quick update.  The spike lost the great red color after about a week. It keeps swelling but probably has a month or two before the inflorescence opens. Then many more months for the flowers to open and, hopefully, pollination & seeds to develop. I have tied it up with rope (far left) to keep it from flopping down and breaking off as has happened to several of my Dypsis saintelucei inflorescences. Check out the upper left corner.

The news today is that I noticed two more spikes emerging from under younger crownshafts.  It's nice to get more chances for seeds, but does this mean I'll miss out on the brilliant red new spike? If the fronds covering these new spikes fall off soon, they will probably break off the developing older inflorescence below.  How do they ever manage to make seeds in the wild with such poor engineering? Gotta love black gunk.

[realarch]

Well, no more basilonga snakes, back to normalcy.

Tim

[John hovancsek]

I am kinda addicted to this palm. It has it all