Palm ID and Germination

[Manalto]

This handsome palm sits in the parking lot at the entrance to Crawford Park in Mobile. Is it Livistona chinensis? If so, how hard is germinating seed for this palm? It's loaded with seed and there are several (doomed) seedlings under the mother plant. If not, can you tell me what it is? I can return and get additional close-up photos if necessary.

 

[SeanK]

It's a Sabal. Can tell by the boots.

[Fusca]

2 hours ago, Manalto said:

This handsome palm sits in the parking lot at the entrance to Crawford Park in Mobile. Is it Livistona chinensis? If so, how hard is germinating seed for this palm? It's loaded with seed and there are several (doomed) seedlings under the mother plant. If not, can you tell me what it is? I can return and get additional close-up photos if necessary.

 

Looks more like a Sabal mexicana to me.  I tried zooming in on the fruits but couldn't tell for sure.  Both have bluish fruits when ripe but the Sabal fruits are more spherical.  The cleaned seeds are quite different though, I attached a photo of both with the mexicana on the left almost exactly 1/2" in diameter.  Livistona chinensis seeds are easy to germinate and Sabal seeds are even easier.  I've successfully germinated immature seeds from both species! 

[Manalto]

1 hour ago, Fusca said:

Looks more like a Sabal mexicana to me.  I tried zooming in on the fruits but couldn't tell for sure.  Both have bluish fruits when ripe but the Sabal fruits are more spherical. 

 

I've seen S. palmetto look like this in the shade, but this is in full sun all day. I hadn't considered another sabal, nor have I encountered S. mexicana in this part of the world. It seems to be thriving in our steambath conditions.

I'll get some close-up photos for better identification. How's the growth rate for mexicana? It was pretty slow in the RGV of Texas; maybe our abundant rain will speed things up a little?

[JLM]

15 hours ago, Manalto said:

This handsome palm sits in the parking lot at the entrance to Crawford Park in Mobile. Is it Livistona chinensis? If so, how hard is germinating seed for this palm? It's loaded with seed and there are several (doomed) seedlings under the mother plant. If not, can you tell me what it is? I can return and get additional close-up photos if necessary.

 

Can positively ID as a fat and happy sabal, but definitely not a palmetto. That thing is huge.

[Fusca]

17 hours ago, Manalto said:

I've seen S. palmetto look like this in the shade, but this is in full sun all day. I hadn't considered another sabal, nor have I encountered S. mexicana in this part of the world. It seems to be thriving in our steambath conditions.

I'll get some close-up photos for better identification. How's the growth rate for mexicana? It was pretty slow in the RGV of Texas; maybe our abundant rain will speed things up a little?

Mexicana isn't speedy but grows fairly fast for a Sabal - it's faster than palmetto at least.    They love water and lots of heat.  Here's another seed comparison - mexicana has large seeds compared with most Sabals and it also has a fuller crown and thicker trunk than palmetto and as you can see in this photo the mexicana seeds at the top are nearly twice the size as the palmetto seeds at the bottom.  If the seeds from your palm there are similar in size to the palmetto seeds in this photo it might be causiarum or uresana.

[Manalto]

Returned for a couple of more photos. Hope these are helpful. The seeds do look a bit more plump than S. palmetto.

 

[Manalto]

Seed from the Crawford Park palm, whatever species it is. I wonder how many I've got. One thing's for sure, there will be some guerilla palm sowing going on around here.

[PaPalmTrees]

dang that's a lot of seeds.

[Dwarf Fan]

Fusca is correct definitely a Sabal, my neighbor next door has an Sabal mexicana. I would say after the seed pic that it is indeed a Sabal mexicana.

[Chester B]

We have weevils here, and I suspect you do too.  Put those seeds in the freezer for a couple of weeks to kill off any weevil eggs.  Then use whatever germinating method you prefer.

[Dwarf Fan]

^^^ This is true they hatched in some seeds I had stored in a box and they stated crawling all around my garage! 

[Manalto]

Thanks guys, for the identification. I didn't mean to offend when I said "whatever it is." I was just being flip. I did pay attention, honest!

This palm has opened my eyes to several others of its type throughout Mobile, especially in Midtown.

This is a good one to have a lot of!