Palms in Panama

[Jeff in St Pete]

I recently got back from a four day trip to Panama.  A friend and I drove down to the border which was about a four hour drive from my house.  Once we got to the border, we found secure parking for my car at a hotel and then went through customs/immigration and walked across to the Panamanian side.  From there we took a van into the city of David for $1.50.  David is about an hour's drive from the border and is the second largest city in Panama.  David has many of the American chain stores that we don't have here in Manuel Antonio so it was a nice change to go shopping in familiar stores.  They even have a Blockbuster Video and I was able to pick up the latest season of "24" which I missed this year!!

There is a nice park in the middle of the city that was recently renovated.  Locals gather there at all times of the day to sit and chat, eat lunch, etc.  There were many new palm plantings all throughout the park.  These may be common palms to many of us, but not in David.  The only palms I saw growing around town were Cocos nucifera, Adonidia merrillii , Dypsis lutescens (these are VERY popular throughout Costa Rica and Panama), Phoenix roebelenii, and Cyrtostachys renda.  

Here are a pair of Bismarckia's flanking an entrance to the park.  Bismarckia's are still very uncommon palms in Costa Rica and this part of Panama.  They were the only Bismarckia's I saw on the trip.  

[Jeff in St Pete]

These two palms were labeled as Bismarckia nobilis?  They have a much different growth habit that the first ones I posted.  I never saw a Biz grow like this. 

[Jeff in St Pete]

A couple of nice Triangle palms at another entrance to the park.  

[Jeff in St Pete]

Small Foxtail

[Jeff in St Pete]

Latania

[Jeff in St Pete]

This palm was labeled as Washingtonia robusta... I don't think so...

[Jeff in St Pete]

Livistona decora?

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

[Jeff in St Pete]

One last picture.  I saw this C renda in front of a house on the way back from the park.

[Jeff in St Pete]

I lied, one last picture of the water fountain in the middle of the park.

[deezpalms]

Nice pictures Jeff. Both post 6 & 7 look like Livistona's to me.

[osideterry]

Post 6 looks like L. chinensis.

To my unfamiliar eyes, posts Posts 8-9 look like Carpinteria. Second and third guesses would be Ptychosperma or Veitchia.

[CarloSpain]

Hello Jeff, nice palms, the two tree of the last photo are Polyalthia longifolia, very comun in Asia.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Thanks Dave, I thought so too.

Terry, I thought post# 9 looked like Carpenteria but I wasn't sure.  

Carlo, thanks for the id on the trees!

[Al in Kona]

Jeff, enjoyed seeing the pics of your trip to David, Panama.  

Many years ago we drove (a VW pop top camper van) all the way from San Diego, CA to Panama City.  I remember well our approach a few miles before arriving in David.  It started to pour rain, a real but rather short lasting deluge.  It was hot, we were in need of a shower, so we parked along the road, put on our swim suits and took our "rain showers".  Very refreshing!  Even back then I found David to be an interesting nice city.  I understand Panama is now welcoming retirees, new business, etc., with many benefits for them.  Just from your trip to David, how did you find that area different from Costa Rica?  Was also wondering why you didn't drive your car across the border?

Thanks again for sharing those nice palm pics from that trip.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Hi Al,

I decided not to take the car across the border because I do not have my Costa Rican plates yet, I am still waiting for them.  Plus in order to take the car over the border, I would need to go to San Jose first and get some kind of paperwork that allows the car to cross the border.  I went with a friend who has been to David many times and he said it was just easier to leave the car at a secure location and then walk across the border and jump in a van heading for David.  Public transportation was very good in Panama.  I didn't see any large buses at all.  But everywhere I looked I saw vans that held about 25-30 people.  These vans ran everywhere around David and to the border all day long and the most I ever paid was $1.75.  They are nice air-conditioned vans too.  

I have to leave Costa Rica every 90 days (and stay out for at least 72 hours) and flying back to the US was getting expensive, so I will probably be going back to Panama in 90 days.  My hotel room in David was air conditioned, had cable tv, and was located within walking distance of everything in downtown David and I only paid $20 per night.  Cabs were $1 pretty much anywhere you wanted to go.  All in all, a cheap destination for when I have to leave the country.  There is also another popular town called Boquete near the border and I hope to go there on one of these trips.  Boquete is at a higher elevation where they grow coffee and it's supposed to be cooler there.

[SubTropicRay]

Nice shots Jeff.

[Dave-Vero]

Boquete is supposedly becoming a magnet for American retirees . . . maybe the next Florida, but without hurricanes?

[Jeff in St Pete]

Thanks Ray!

Hi Dave, I have heard the same thing about Boquete.  I'm hoping to check it out the next time I go to Panama.  Here in Quepos, they are in the process of building a multi-million dollar marina.  One of the selling points is that people have a hurricane-free place to dock their boats.

[junglegalfla]

Looks like a great city! That bizzie is really cool in post #2. You should try and get seed sometime. Very unique looking!

[Al in Kona]

Jeff - the American dollar is still used as the currency in Panama isn't it?  Just curious to know if these days you found many differences of any kind between that part of Panama and Costa Rica?  You know things like architecture, foods, other customs, etc.?  

Isn't the Boquete area where some interesting small palms are located in the cooler rainforests?

[MattyB]

I'm thinking those funny looking Bizzies are Lantania loddigesii, the blue latan palm.  They trick me too.  The red one should be labled L. lontaroids.....I think.

[fiji jim]

I think that Matt may be right about the Latans.

Nice pics.

How safe is it there.?

I always heard that the crime rate was high.

Jim

[Jeff in St Pete]

Bren, I plan to make a lot more trips to David so I will be watching for seeds from any of the palms there.  Unfortunately most of them are pretty small and many years from seeding.    

Al, yes they still use US currency there, I felt right at home!  They have some Panamanian coins that are the same size as US coins and are interchangeable, but all paper money is US dollars.  The archictecture wasn't much to look at, the buildings are kind of drab looking although some of the newer buldings had some color and at least an attempt at some interesting architecture.  The food was good, although not as good as Costa Rican food (in my opinion).  We found ourselves eating some meals at places like TGI Fridays (a US chain restaurant) just because it was a treat for us to have a taste of home.  One of the main differences was the way people dressed in Panama.  Where I live in Costa Rica, the women wear very tight clothing and show a lot of skin.  In Panama, they dressed more conservatively and we saw many native women wearing traditional, very long, brightly colored dresses.  In fact I was even told it was illegal for men to be shirtless in public except for the beaches.  

I'm not sure about the palms in Boquete, but I will be sure to check it out when I visit there!  

Matt, Thanks!  My first thought was that they were Latanias due to the angle of the fronds and the way they were growing outwards.  But when I saw they were labeled as Bismarckias, I thought I had been wrong.  I have also been tricked a few times thinking a palm was a Bizzie and it turned out to be a L loddigesii.  I should have known after I saw that Livistona mislabeled as Washingtonia robusta!

Jim, I felt very safe in Panama.  I saw many police and from what I have been told, the laws are strict there.  Where I live in Costa Rica, it seems many laws are not enforced at all.  I walked around the streets of David late at night and never felt uneasy.

[Joe D.]

Thanks for the great post Jeff,

Don't miss Sumit Park if your ever near Panama City!  Wow lots of great stuff.

[Don Little]

Jeff, Don't worry about not IDing the blue latan, While in the Philippines they had some small Blue latans that Looked very much like Bizzies, after all the coloration and the leaf base pattern are very similar. From what I've read the Latans are closely related to Bizzies anyway.  Great Pics, thanks for posting.

[Jeff in St Pete]

Thanks for the tip Joe!  I plan on going to Panama City someday.  I will definitely check it out.  

Don, thanks!  That's at least the 3rd time I have been fooled into thinking I was looking at a Biz.