Snake Palm

[Mangosteen]

"Snake Palm" on my property in Pepeekeo Hawaii.  (What is the name of it?)

[Darold Petty]

Caryota zebrina ?

[Mangosteen]

That's the one, thanks!

[Merlyn]

@MangosteenI read there are two, Caryota Ophiopellis and Zebrina.  I'm not sure what the difference is...they look pretty similar to me!  I bought a couple of Ophiopellis from Floribunda a while back, but unfortunately they just melted the first time it got into the upper 20s. 

[Mangosteen]

Strange how most palm sites call for  C.  zebrina to be grown in shady conditions. This one was planted in full sun ever since it was a relatively small five gallon size. The planting site is about 1/2 mile from the ocean on the wet, humid side of the Big Island at about 350'  elevation and gets well over 100 inches of rain a year.

Any other growers?

[Hilo Jason]

I’m growing Caryota Ophiopellis in my  Hilo garden. Has been a great grower there at 550 feet elevation. 
 

I planted a smaller one at our property in Pepe’ekeo Point and it struggled at first but seems to be doing better now that it’s acclimating. Full blazing, sun close to the ocean. 
 

I will try to get some pictures soon.  Yours looks great. Not sure if it’s Zebrina or Ophiophellis, but looks great either way. 

[GottmitAlex]

I like the size and look of those caryotas. Completely controllable unlike the gigantic caryotas that just go timber after flowering. 

I take it C. ophiopellis and zebrina are truly tropical caryotas?

 

[fiji jim]

Both grow well here in shade.

[Tracy]

16 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

I’m growing Caryota Ophiopellis in my  Hilo garden. Has been a great grower there at 550 feet elevation. 

 

On 2/4/2023 at 10:00 AM, Mangosteen said:

Strange how most palm sites call for  C.  zebrina to be grown in shady conditions. This one was planted in full sun ever since it was a relatively small five gallon size. The planting site is about 1/2 mile from the ocean on the wet, humid side of the Big Island at about 350'  elevation and gets well over 100 inches of rain a year.

Any other growers?

Jason's looks nice having seen it just a couple of weeks ago.  I believe that I saw an older specimen of Caryota zebrina or ophiopellis at Bill Austin's.  Bill can correct me if I'm wrong, but we were going so fast that my memory couldn't register everything.  I will share as I remember and and will happily be corrected but as I recall both will eventually get pretty big and due to size you lose the ability to see the striping.  Below is the one that I recall being either C zebrina or C ophiopellis.  While this is not as large as a Caryota obtusa, it isn't small.

By the way, it looks like you two are in the same neighborhood or will be eventually.

[Tracy]

This one was definitely one of the two above mentioned Caryota species, and also in Bill's garden.

[Hilo Jason]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

 

Jason's looks nice having seen it just a couple of weeks ago.  I believe that I saw an older specimen of Caryota zebrina or ophiopellis at Bill Austin's.  Bill can correct me if I'm wrong, but we were going so fast that my memory couldn't register everything.  I will share as I remember and and will happily be corrected but as I recall both will eventually get pretty big and due to size you lose the ability to see the striping.  Below is the one that I recall being either C zebrina or C ophiopellis.  While this is not as large as a Caryota obtusa, it isn't small.

By the way, it looks like you two are in the same neighborhood or will be eventually.

I'm pretty sure that big one is Zebrina and seeing that is why I chose Ophiophellis for my gardens.  They seem much slower so you can enjoy the unique markings on the petioles for much longer, before they tower up too high.  I have no idea how big Ophiophellis will eventually get, I don't think I've ever seen a huge one here.  Doesn't mean they won't get big, but at least not anytime soon. 

[Hilo Jason]

Here’s my Ophiophellis in Hilo:

 

[Kim]

Posting pics of my C. zebrina in hopes it will help differentiate it from the C. ophiopellis, maybe?

Purchased as a 4" pot April of 2011, planted from  3-gal. July of 2014, these first photos are from August 2019:

I will figure out how to correct the photo display later, sorry about that. They show correctly on my computer. 🤷‍♀️

Here it is today, a whole lot bigger. Spear probably tops out at 20 ft. 

I wouldn't say it was really fast, but it's Hawaii speed.

 

[Hilo Jason]

Small Caryota Ophiophellis in full sun on our Pepe’ekeo property (12 miles north of Hilo). Even after a month of almost no rain it’s doing ok so far. 

[iDesign]

14 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

I love the overall arrangement you made here... Fantastic example of varying shape, size, texture & color for max effect. It also uses my favorite color combination for plants... Burgundy, Dark Purple, Green & Orange (with hints of pink). Saving to my "awesome landscapes" photo collection. ❤️

What is the palm at the far right with orange & white trunk?

[Hilo Jason]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:55 AM, iDesign said:

I love the overall arrangement you made here... Fantastic example of varying shape, size, texture & color for max effect. It also uses my favorite color combination for plants... Burgundy, Dark Purple, Green & Orange (with hints of pink). Saving to my "awesome landscapes" photo collection. ❤️

What is the palm at the far right with orange & white trunk?

Thank you Stacey! This property is fairly large so I can space plantings out a bit more than I have in the past at my Fallbrook or Hilo gardens. I still probably planted some of this stuff too close but time will tell and edits will be made if and when needed. All of the Ti plants and other companion plants for this planter were taken as clippings from my Hilo garden. I’m spoiled with how quickly and easily things grow here! 
 

That palm on the right is a mystery and is pretty special to me. A friend collected that as seed in Madagascar. It was growing in front of a hotel in the Antalaha, Madagascar. He described it as what looked like a large, solitary dypsis Lutescens. The size of a large king palm. He referred to it as “Sp. Column” because of its size. I refer to is as “Sp Knell” (his name) or lately as “Sp. Glow in the dark” because the colors keep getting brighter and brighter. 
 

Hopefully once this one sets seed, I can help get it into more gardens. 

[Hilo Jason]

On 2/17/2023 at 7:55 AM, iDesign said:

I love the overall arrangement you made here... Fantastic example of varying shape, size, texture & color for max effect. It also uses my favorite color combination for plants... Burgundy, Dark Purple, Green & Orange (with hints of pink). Saving to my "awesome landscapes" photo collection. ❤️

What is the palm at the far right with orange & white trunk?

Here’s a cropped version to show that mystery palm off a little better.