Pembana Palm Sourcing

[MangosteenLu]

Hey everyone,

 

I’ve been reading on here a lot because I’m redoing my mom’s back yard in Miami, and I’m replacing some Areca palms with giant root mounds. Originally I was going to cut back and try to get one surviving trunk to replant and restart the Areca, but then I read on here how a lot of people love the Pembana Palm. It appeals to me because it is clustering, but also has a much neater look + it is full sun. I decided I wanted to replace the Areca with a pembana. 

I naively bought “solitary” pembana seedlings. I want a clustering variety though. Is it even possible to distinguish if the palm will be clustering or solitary at the seedling stage? Since starting from seedling is such a big time investment, I’m hesitant to keep these. I don’t want to end up with all seedlings being solitary pembana’s.

What are people’s thoughts? Also if anyone in the south Florida area has a pembana palm for sale or trade, I’d love to chat!

[Johnny Palmseed]

These should be relatively easy for you to find in SFL since they have become a popular alternative to “Arecas” in the last 10 years. Although some past promoters are not necessarily big fans anymore after some hurricanes. I believe that the solitary vs cluster trait is not possible to identify on very small palms. It could take a few years from seed. I believe that the solitary variant comes from a solitary parent and clustering from clustering. I have found that the clustering trait can be quite varied from plant to plant. Even from the same batch of seeds, I have one that clumps wildly and another that is minimal. Are you 100% sure that you have the solitary variety? I have found it to be less common than the clumping.

[MangosteenLu]

Thanks for responding! This is my first post. That was the impression I got about the Pembana. As of now it’s random and no one has truly identified a way to control it. 

I find that there actually aren’t that many vendors selling the pembana. I bought mine from here: https://letsgrowflorida.com/collections/palms/products/dypsis-pembana-tropical-palm-tree

Since there isn’t any information online about the known trait or any true cultivar, I kind of doubt it is actually truly solitary.

I'm totally new to palms though, so I guess I just worry about putting in the time investment on the wrong plant!