So What Caught Your Eye Today?

[realarch]

Areca catechu ‘dwarf’. Not so dwarfish anymore.

Tim

[Okkidoggi]

This caught my eyes today at a private landscape in Singapore. Can anyone tell me is it a Iguanura wallichiana or Calyptrocalyx?

Edited September 26, 2022 by Okkidoggi

[realarch]

Off the top of my head I’d say Iguanura…….and an incredibly beautiful one at that!

Tim

[The Gerg]

On 9/23/2022 at 2:54 PM, realarch said:

Clinostigma samoense. The beauty’s on duty.

Tim

Wow. That crown shaft seems to be glowing green. Beauty indeed.

[bubba]

[JohnAndSancho]

Volunteer washies growing through the hedges around their dead mama

[palmfriend]

Hi there,

 

first of all greatest thanks to all of you who were concerned about us (and the garden) during our couple of typhoons!

With all those horrible images from "Ian" rampaging Florida I really hope that everyone is healthy and doing well over there, too!!

The weeks after our storms I was extremely busy at work and privately but everything is calming down now and I enjoyed a 

short stroll in the garden where something caught my eye...

This is an image of my small C.metallica groove I have set up a couple months ago. There were four palms of this species 

and they did well so far. But somehow one of them got damaged (during the first typhoon I assume) and the little trunk broke

- it looked a bit rotten as well. However, I felt sorry about the loss and threw the upper part of the palm away - very close to the 

wall nearby. 

Today I was really suprised to find that part almost intact with still strong green leaves on it.So,  I picked it up and gave it a closer  

look. I am not expert enough but I think I recognized very small dots as an attempt to push out new roots. Having not forgotten the 

interesting thread about the "air layering", I went immediately into action. I cleaned the broken crown and potted it up with some good soil...

I will keep it watered a bit more than usual and monitor the further development. I think it has a good chance to recover completely.

 

regards 

Lars

 

 

[realarch]

Lars, these are surprisingly tough little buggers. A few months ago pigs pulled the two I had planted right out of the ground. I found them a few feet from where they were planted. I stuck them in the same spot, after some varmit mitigation, and it didn’t seem to phase them at all. I wasn’t expecting their resilience.

Tim

[WaianaeCrider]

Planted this Chambeyronia macrocarpa var. 'hookeri' out 1 year ago almost to date.  Just walked by and WOWZER!!!

Had one in April, then July and now in Oct.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

No idea if this is normal or not, but C. Benezeii (or whatever it's called now) trunk is splitting to throw a new spathe. 

[John hovancsek]

Salacca multiflora or something like that. Lol

[John hovancsek]

C. Renda 

[UK_Palms]

Wowzer... a Washingtonia Filibusta flowering away in a southwest London suburb at 51N. There was at least 5-6 separate bracts/spathes on it.

 

Given that Phoenix Canariensis self-seeds over here and is becoming naturalised in the London area, I suspect it is only a matter of time before the first Washingtonia start dropping seeds, if they haven't already. No doubt many others would have flowered this summer, especially in back yards. The big Earls Court Robusta by the pool for instance.

I know of several other specimens that have apparently flowered this year too, on the Isle of Wight, in London and in Kent, but this is the first one that I have actually photographed flowering. Do you think this will produce viable seeds, or does it need another flowering washie for pollenation? @Silas_Sancona @Xenon @gurugu

[Silas_Sancona]

33 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

Wowzer... a Washingtonia Filibusta flowering away in a southwest London suburb at 51N. There was at least 5-6 separate bracts/spathes on it.

 

Given that Phoenix Canariensis self-seeds over here and is becoming naturalised in the London area, I suspect it is only a matter of time before the first Washingtonia start dropping seeds, if they haven't already. No doubt many others would have flowered this summer, especially in back yards. The big Earls Court Robusta by the pool for instance.

I know of several other specimens that have apparently flowered this year too, on the Isle of Wight, in London and in Kent, but this is the first one that I have actually photographed flowering. Do you think this will produce viable seeds, or does it need another flowering washie for pollenation? @Silas_Sancona @Xenon @gurugu

Pretty sure they don't..  Have un-trimmed Washy specimens in the neighborhood that flower/ set seed on their own. Keep in mind that bees / other pollinating insects can fly great distances between flowering plants,  so it's possible there are others flowering within the distance bees would travel between them.  Again though, flowers on Washingtonia are bisexual / can fertilize themselves,  so that specimen / any others you're seeing flowering there, should set seed.

99% sure that if you're seeing that amount of seed forming, most -if not all- should be viable.  They're kind of the Rats / Rabbits of the Palm world ..IE: produce wayy too many children, haha.

[Foxpalms]

@UK_Palmsconsidering how easy these palms are to germinate as we get more  Washingtonia that produce seed I can imagine these spreading everywhere from birds.  In the the next 10 years these are going to be growing in pavement cracks and all over London.  If humans don't plant lots more the birds will spread  them anyway!

Edited October 3, 2022 by Foxpalms

[Silas_Sancona]

13 minutes ago, Foxpalms said:

@UK_Palmsconsidering how easy these palms are to germinate as we get more  Washingtonia that produce seed I can imagine these spreading everywhere from birds.  In the the next 10 years these are going to be growing in pavement cracks and all over London. 

   If humans don't plant lots more the birds will spread  them anyway!

  Guarantee it.  8 X's out of 10, that is how they're spread around here and in California. 

Depending on city to city-wide location, winters in cooler spots may slow their spread a bit, but, once mature specimens start seeding, even if irregularly,  ..say a good crop produced every other year under your conditions,   babies will be poppin' up everywhere. 

Even if a quarter ...or close to half of them  end up getting zapped by a bad winter in X place at some point, ...plenty will reach seeding size later  ...if left to continue growing to maturity of course.

[UK_Palms]

1 hour ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Pretty sure they don't..  Have un-trimmed Washy specimens in the neighborhood that flower/ set seed on their own. Keep in mind that bees / other pollinating insects can fly great distances between flowering plants,  so it's possible there are others flowering within the distance bees would travel between them.  Again though, flowers on Washingtonia are bisexual / can fertilize themselves,  so that specimen / any others you're seeing flowering there, should set seed.

99% sure that if you're seeing that amount of seed forming, most -if not all- should be viable.  They're kind of the Rats / Rabbits of the Palm world ..IE: produce wayy too many children, haha.

Thanks for getting back to me, Silas. It's reassuring to know that they can fertilise themselves and don't need another flowering washie nearby. It's also reassuring knowing that it has probably set seed then looking at 1-2 of those pictures. You can definitely see small black seeds forming on what I am guessing is the oldest spathe. Hopefully we don't get a 1 in 25 or 50 year freeze or something this winter. Even that wouldn't kill the washie, but it would probably wreck the seeds that will be maturing.

What is the normal time of year that you find they put out flowers? I assumed it would be spring, or early summer? Or can Washingtonia flower year-round? Also when would you normally expect to harvest Washingtonia seeds? I am guessing it would be in the spring and it would take about 9-12 months to mature? Or does it vary depending on when it flowered? I'll check up on this specimen again in a few months time. I'm hoping to speak with the owner at some point to ask some questions about it and see if I can obtain a few seeds.

 

22 minutes ago, Foxpalms said:

@UK_Palmsconsidering how easy these palms are to germinate as we get more  Washingtonia that produce seed I can imagine these spreading everywhere from birds.  In the the next 10 years these are going to be growing in pavement cracks and all over London.  If humans don't plant lots more the birds will spread  them anyway!

Yes, I suspect others have flowered and possibly set seed here too, especially in London. We don't know what else is lurking in back yards either. I do know that there is a 40-50 foot Robusta in central London (Mayfair) that I haven't even posted before, which would have been planted over 50 years ago.

Also Washingtonia are rockets in southern England nowadays, but especially in the London area. This one is actually located in the outer suburbs of southwest London as well, where winter nights in particular will be much colder than central London, by about 3-4C. Yet just look at the growth rate! The nearby Cordyline got left for dead! Mental.

October 2008 (earliest street view)

 

October 2022 (flowering & setting seed)

 

There was actually a parakeet perched on this washingtonia when I arrived earlier, but it flew off right before I took the first photo. I saw loads of parakeets again today.

[Foxpalms]

26 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

  Guarantee it.  8 X's out of 10, that is how they're spread around here and in California. 

Depending on city to city-wide location, winters in cooler spots may slow their spread a bit, but, once mature specimens start seeding, even if irregularly,  ..say a good crop produced every other year under your conditions,   babies will be poppin' up everywhere. 

Even if a quarter ...or close to half of them  end up getting zapped by a bad winter in X place at some point, ...plenty will reach seeding size later  ...if left to continue growing to maturity of course.

It depends where the birds drop them if they drop them in the country side where they will be slower to germinate and might get killed by a bad winter when they are seedlings but in London they should be fine in the colder parts because they are 9a and the coldest parts have the highest daytime temperature in summer so they should grow nicely there. Central London is a 9b/10a so the seedlings will be fine unless we have a Texas freeze type event they aren't getting killed from the cold. Central London is where they will germinate the fastest because the high in summer is maybe 0.5-1f lower on average than the hottest parts but that is massively made up at night where it can be 5-15f warmer.  Some parts of central London were a csa this year. The majority of the hottest days on record where in the last 10 years and if you look at the 4 year average here, every 4 years the averages of each month go up.  

Edited October 3, 2022 by Foxpalms

[Foxpalms]

@UK_Palms Washingtonia is definitely fast here, a smaller one I have is making frond number 19 of the year and still growing though it's slowed down since summer.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Foxpalms

[Silas_Sancona]

5 minutes ago, UK_Palms said:

Thanks for getting back to me, Silas. It's reassuring to know that they can fertilise themselves and don't need another flowering washie nearby. It's also reassuring knowing that it has probably set seed then looking at 1-2 of those pictures. You can definitely see small black seeds forming on what I am guessing is the oldest spathe. Hopefully we don't get a 1 in 25 or 50 year freeze or something this winter. Even that wouldn't kill the washie, but it would probably wreck the seeds that will be maturing.

What is the normal time of year that you find they put out flowers? I assumed it would be spring, or early summer? Or can Washingtonia flower year-round? Also when would you normally expect to harvest Washingtonia seeds? I am guessing it would be in the spring and it would take about 9-12 months to mature? Or does it vary depending on when it flowered? I'll check up on this specimen again in a few months time. I'm hoping to speak with the owner at some point to ask some questions about it and see if I can obtain a few seeds.

 

 

Here, they flower around late May / June, about the time many get their yearly  " Pre- Monsoon Season " haircut ..but, i have seen flower stalks as late as about now.

Ripe seed on many is ready for harvest / taken by birds, etc right about now- thru roughly November / December.. Have seen seed stalks still full of seed hanging from some specimens in Feb. / March though.

At the old house, Birds perching in the Mesquite out back were dropping seed from nearby specimens nearly rear round ..though heaviest this time of year.

[Billy]

Watermelon Chambeyronia macrocarpa opening up a new frond today. I enjoyed watching the spear grow for quite some time and didn’t get to see the beginning stages of it cracking open as I went straight from work to watch my friends band play last night. A nice surprise when I went out back this morning! 

[palmfriend]

On 10/3/2022 at 2:29 AM, realarch said:

Lars, these are surprisingly tough little buggers. A few months ago pigs pulled the two I had planted right out of the ground. I found them a few feet from where they were planted. I stuck them in the same spot, after some varmit mitigation, and it didn’t seem to phase them at all. I wasn’t expecting their resilience.

Tim

Very interesting!

It seems that these are indeed tough guys - I wonder what the reason for that may be... 

Thanks for your reply -

Lars

 

[3 Milesfrom Gulf of Mexico]

Red orange and green

[Palmiz]

The most red I've gotten out of my flames. 

[Matt in OC]

Pyriformis new leaf today. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

This is a "duh" moment but now that my super leggy Monstera Deliciosa has gotten tall enough to reach the grow light range, she's throwing new leaves faster and more often. 

[John hovancsek]

H. Beguinii and v. splendida 

[Matt in OC]

Clinostigma 

[D. Morrowii]

Saw this one starting to open up yesterday - Pelagodoxa macrocarpa 

[SeanK]

Trachycarpus naturalizing in the pavement.

[Kim]

Well there was this…

[Silas_Sancona]

Maybe not today, ...but less than 24 hours ago

Sabal uresana  enjoying some desert sun between October downpours. 








While all Brahea armata are eye catchers,  This specimen is still the most perfectly silver example of the species i've seen with my own eyes..  Even on the shaded side.

[Billy]

“Watermelon” Chambeyronia macrocarpa frond starting to turn green with a tropical looking sky in the back. 

[realarch]

On 10/7/2022 at 9:12 AM, D. Morrowii said:

Saw this one starting to open up yesterday - Pelagodoxa macrocarpa 

Dean, beautiful. Over the years I had heard there was another species of Pelagodoxa, and until your post, hadn’t taken the time to actually look it up, so thanks. Looks like a winner.

Tim

 

[D. Morrowii]

@realarch Tim, thanks! This came with 2 or 3 small leaves in a 4” pot from Floribunda a little over a year ago. Its been mostly perfect since I got it with very little pampering. I do bring it in when it gets below 40F though. I’ve read here on PT that they seem to get through mid to low 30s without any noticeable damage only to keel over a couple months later.  Also I spelled it wrong 😜 should be microcarpa I believe. 

[realarch]

Dypsis marojejyi.

Tim

[sgvcns]

Male Chamaedorea "tenella" putting on a show for the nearby ladies

SS

[EJPalm05]

The crown of my seed grown phoenix canariensis!

Edited October 11, 2022 by EJ NJ
Typo

[Darold Petty]

Here is a triple play, Hedyscepe with a fresh spadix, a nearly mature one, and a second generation seedling in the foreground.

(Please do not inquire about these seeds, they have all been allocated already.)  

[Billy]

Volunteer Chamaerops humilis cerifera growing near the beach down the street from our neighborhood. May have to rescue and donate for a friend’s garden…

Dirty size 10 slipper for scale.