Double and triple archontophoenix from 1 seed?

[Motlife]

I germinated a bunch of a. cunninghamiana a few months ago in a community pot. Today I split them up and put them in their own pots, and it seemed like around 1/3 of them had 2 or 3 shoots coming out of 1 seed.

 

Is that normal or did I get a strange batch? The parent trees are all single planted. Or has something happened like another seedling has merged and then lost its seed? Will they be likely to grow to maturity, or will it be likely that one main shoot will be left and the others will die? 

Here's a pic of the parent trees:

[Johnny Palmseed]

I believe that the seeds contained 2 embryos. I have seen this occur but not to the level that you are describing. I have had 1 in a batch produce a double but neither survived. Although I can’t say that it was because of it producing 2 plants. 1/3 seems like a weirdly high percentage. Perhaps your plant was genetically disposed to produce twins? Or maybe it was exposed to a chemical that caused it. It’s like when people do fertility treatments and end up having multiple babies. I am no expert but I would just plant them up as is. If you try to separate them, they could be damaged.

[Motlife]

Come to think of it, it does seem as if the seeds had multiple bulges on a lot of them rather than being quite round, I guess they did have multiple embryos. It must be something genetic I would guess, I wouldn't imagine too much is sprayed there, but who knows. 

The multiples seem to be just as vigorous as the singles, so hopefully they will grow well and not get the same issues as you can get with multiple seeds planted in close proximity. Fingers crossed anyway!