Cat palm variation

[thyerr01]

I made an interesting observation this morning at my local Home Depot. They had just received some new pallets of Majesty and Cat which were still partially wrapped and all looked perfectly normal. These were to replace their current stock which had clearly been left outside during our recent two-night freeze in Houston and looked pretty rough - except for two Cat palms. These two had no apparent cold damage and also looked quite different, being noticeably shorter and had fatter stems. They certainly weren't new as the soil in the pots looked old and they were mixed amongst the other old stock.  I figured I'd roll the dice on these two.  Out of curiosity I stopped by another nearby HD but they only had the taller, thinner Cat palms and had protected them from the freeze.

I assume the variation is just due to different suppliers with different growing conditions? Or are there random hybrids and other things all sold together as 'Cat Palms'?

The first two images are one of the short/fat ones, the 3rd shows the taller ones. 

[aabell]

'Tall' variation looks like Dypsis lutescens. Note that there are a dozen or so separate plants crammed into those pots.  Dypsis lutescens is a clustering species, but it won't offset when it's that small - those are only seedlings. The true Chamadedorea in the first photos appears to be an actual single clustering specimen, mature enough to be producing inflorescences. 

[thyerr01]

I don't think the 'Tall' variant is a Dypsis - I think it is a Chamaedorea of some kind.  I agree that it could be a pot of multiple younger plants.

I was able to answer one questions though. The label from the shorter/fatter plants I bought names a different supplier (Nature Creations) than the 'Tall' version (Costa Desire) - see pics. Both versions are labelled as Cat palms for what thats worth. I'm still inclined to write this off as just variation in growing conditions, but given I rarely see Cat palms planted in Houston, I don't know how much they vary. 

[JohnAndSancho]

The taller ones really do look like D. Lutescens. I'm growing both on my patio. 

 

I've got 3 cat palms - my biggest lives under a grow light in a corner of my apartment. It started out as a $20 HD like yours. Everything was kinda huddled in this picture when we had that last freeze, but it's the tall one.  

[JohnAndSancho]

Now that i think about it, they might be c. Elegans.