Serenoa repens 'Georgia Silver', Revisited

[Bigfish]

Many of you have heard of this mythical palm somewhere in Georgia, but few know the real story or what it actually looks like.  A fellow PT'er knew of them, and provided a large quantity of seeds to a nurseryman in GA, who in turn sold them to RPS.  RPS gave them the moniker 'Georgia Silver', and seeds were distributed.  Here is the description on their website:

"This really special and exciting form of this popular American palm comes from a relict population in central Georgia. These palms are wild, occurring on isolated sand dunes where ancient beaches used to be near the "fall line." The Silver Saw Palmetto is a full-sized, glaucous plant that is rarely available as it only sets fruit heavily following warm winters. This population is the most northerly, most inland ever found, and extremely cold hardy. A unique opportunity not to be missed!"

All of this is accurate, but the only thing that I would add is that the palms themselves aren't as silver as you would find on the east coast of FL.  Glaucous, yes...not exactly silver, however.  I'm not sure where the picture on the website came from, but it's not representative of the actual color of the palms there.  They are definitely different from the green form, however!  The other part of the description that I would change is regarding their size.  These palms appear to be genetic dwarfs.  There is a post somewhere here on PalmTalk that shows a maybe 11 year old palm, still with strap leaves.  I can't locate the post, but I managed to save the pictures on my phone.  I won't re-post them here, because they aren't my pictures.  Maybe the original poster will see this and share the pictures.  I collected seeds in 2019 and sowed a few.  They are probably the slowest-growing palms that I have ever grown, with just a few strap leaves after almost 3 years (there are only 3 growing in a decent-sized community pot.   They definitely don't have seeds every year either.  Sometimes only once every 2-3 years or more.  Some of these pictures I got down close to ground level to take.  There are some larger, greener Serenoa in the woods, so I suppose it's a possibility that the dwarfism is caused by environmental conditions and the deep sand, but that wouldn't explain why the seedlings are so painfully slow.  I believe that they are genetic dwarfs, and that the larger Serenoa growing in the woods are the plain green form and different. 

These are also the northernmost, inland population of Serenoa known in their native range, so they should have an extra degree or two of cold-hardiness.  In habitat, these very palms have been through 0F.  Many, many years ago, another enthusiast managed to transplant a few of them and in 1996, they reportedly sailed through 9F with no problems.  The day after Christmas of this past year, this area went down to 15F.  I personally have no real experience with their ultimate cold-hardiness only to say that they can take 20F here in Gainesville in a pot with no issues, LOL. 

There are also some other, quite interesting plants of note in this area, which has very deep sand dunes in places.  It's a hot, dry environment, seemingly inhospitable.  A very far inland population of Quercus geminata lives here, perhaps the northernmost, inland population for this species as well.  There is also an Opuntia species here that is glacially slow growing.  I got two pads in 2019 and put them together in a pot.  One has grown one pad in three years, the other has grown two pads.  Sandhill Rosemary and other scrub vegetation can be found here as well. 

So there you have it.  Still a mysterious little palm.  The jury's still out as to whether they are dwarfs because of environmental conditions (that sand is deep and has almost zero nutrients) or genetics.  Seedlings are among the slowest-growing palms on earth, seemingly, even with good soil and irrigation and nutrients.

These seedlings are almost three years old.  They are irrigated, but admittedly, I haven't fertilized them very often.  Maybe only once or twice total. 

The glacially-slow Opuntia I referenced.

 

A very rare sight!

[Kokioula]

This habitat and palms look amazing!   So specialized and such a remote fringe of the species range

[SeanK]

About 20 years back, there were some S.repens growing on a fenceline along I20 west of Augusta GA. It was a sandy berm on the north side of the interstate. I've not been out that way in a long time, so I can't say if they're still there. 

[Bigfish]

14 hours ago, Kokioula said:

This habitat and palms look amazing!   So specialized and such a remote fringe of the species range

Yes, these are special little palms, imho.  I am of the belief that they are genetic dwarfs.  The seeds are smaller than normal also.  They should be very cold-hardy!  They survived 0°F in 1996, and maybe lower than that in the 1980s.  

[sonoranfans]

Three points,

1) silver varieties are found near the coast, inland are more green.  I planted (6) silver ones from a nursery who dug them from the south carolina coast. great color though some variation in silver exists even in those, but all are no doubt the silver phase.  We only see silver green(not as silver as my south carolina ones) ones near the salt water here, inland they are the green ones.

2) After 10-12 years these palms get huge, 20 foot across for the oldest in the most sun.  Those planted  the photo look like they will have to fight it out for space.  10-15 years ago it was reported that they can die back above the ground from cold but still come back from the subterranean trunks.  

3) they dont like clay soil in rainy florida as they like a nice dry cycle.  Do not over water in clay or they will have fungal infections and spear pull.  Mine in part clay/part sandy soil had some spear pull on buds lowest to the ground in august/sept a few years ago when it rained 23/30 days.  I would venture that you should not irrigate these in winter if they can get fungal infection in summer, winter will be a problem too.  Here is one of my smaller ones that is in pretty good shade.  Pic was taken in early 2021 its about double the size now.  They grow much faster after the first 6-7 years in the ground.   

[Bigfish]

1 hour ago, sonoranfans said:

Three points,

1) silver varieties are found near the coast, inland are more green.  I planted (6) silver ones from a nursery who dug them from the south carolina coast. great color though some variation in silver exists even in those, but all are no doubt the silver phase.  We only see silver green(not as silver as my south carolina ones) ones near the salt water here, inland they are the green ones.

2) After 10-12 years these palms get huge, 20 foot across for the oldest in the most sun.  Those planted  the photo look like they will have to fight it out for space.  10-15 years ago it was reported that they can die back above the ground from cold but still come back from the subterranean trunks.  

3) they dont like clay soil in rainy florida as they like a nice dry cycle.  Do not over water in clay or they will have fungal infections and spear pull.  Mine in part clay/part sandy soil had some spear pull on buds lowest to the ground in august/sept a few years ago when it rained 23/30 days.  I would venture that you should not irrigate these in winter if they can get fungal infection in summer, winter will be a problem too.  Here is one of my smaller ones that is in pretty good shade.  Pic was taken in early 2021 its about double the size now.  They grow much faster after the first 6-7 years in the ground.   

1) To your first point, these were named ‘Georgia Silver’ by rarepalmseeds dot com.  They are more of a green-silver, obviously, but definitely different and more silver than the all green form.  They are probably a relict population, as they are the northernmost, inland population known.
 

2) You’re looking at a very old, established, native population of Serenoa, not planted.  They are dwarfs, very different from the silver form on the coast.  They have stayed this size for as long as people knew they existed there.
 

3) Completely agree about the sand being the best growing medium.  The ones in the pictures are in very deep sand.  I tried planting some in Tennessee many years ago and they sulked in my TN clay.  

[Looking Glass]

I did a lot of driving around this past week, and Serenoa repans was everywhere.  Probably drove past hundreds of different stands and plantings.   The colors vary from green, to waxy light green, to super white.    Some of the stands getting probably 10 feet tall.  There is a lot of variability with these.  
 

I did plant an Idaho potato-sized one yesterday, with little growing points busting out like eyes.    It will be interesting to see what it becomes over the years.  

[PalmatierMeg]

I am trying to germinate the 'Georgia Silver' as part of my interest in genetic dwarf, i.e., what I call "uber dwarf" palms. I hope I live long enough to see how they turn out.

I have tried a number of silver Serenoa and my experience is that the silver form is much more prone to spear pulls and fungal attacks than the green form. I've had green and silver almost side by side and while the green thrive in my yard, I end up losing about 50% of my silver. They seem to require more sun and less moisture to stay happy. I had a primo example of a silver Serenoa planted on the berm of a vacant canal end lot with no irrigation, but it ended up compost when a builder developed the lot for a house.

[Looking Glass]

1 hour ago, PalmatierMeg said:

I am trying to germinate the 'Georgia Silver' as part of my interest in genetic dwarf, i.e., what I call "uber dwarf" palms. I hope I live long enough to see how they turn out.

I have tried a number of silver Serenoa and my experience is that the silver form is much more prone to spear pulls and fungal attacks than the green form. I've had green and silver almost side by side and while the green thrive in my yard, I end up losing about 50% of my silver. They seem to require more sun and less moisture to stay happy. I had a primo example of a silver Serenoa planted on the berm of a vacant canal end lot with no irrigation, but it ended up compost when a builder developed the lot for a house.

I bought some ssp “Cinerea” seeds and some coontie seeds.  Put them both into Dixie cups with mostly sand as a mix.    The Coonties are sprouting after about a month, no movement on Serenoa yet.  I see great examples of silvers baking in the open roadside, and greens in the pine hammock understory of the local parks.   No silvers under tree cover.  I think you are right…. The silvers like to be broiled rather than baked.  

[SeanK]

Those I saw along I20 were all under a foot in height. No trunks