Nice Beaucarnea recurvata cluster in Harlingen, Texas

[Meangreen94z]

Building is 20 feet(6 meters) tall for reference Size 10.5 shoe for reference 

 

[jimmyt]

Impressive clump, if the shoe fits !  😆 

[Merlyn]

@Meangreen94z that's an epic collection!  I wonder what they'll do if they start trying to grow into the building at the base.  I don't really know how much force the base can exert when expanding.  Are they like oak roots...slowly expanding to crush anything in the way?  Or because it's just a spongy cambium inside, do they just squish up against the building and stop?  

I just transplanted a triple ponytail cluster last week, with roughly 2-2.5' diameter bases.  I had stupidly planted it about 3 feet from the driveway, and after a couple of years it had already started expanding to fill all available space.  In my case I know they'd just grow over the top of the driveway eventually, and then be too heavy to easily move.  Eventually mine may look a bit like that monster cluster of 6 or so plants. 

[ahosey01]

  On 4/7/2025 at 1:06 AM, Meangreen94z said:

Building is 20 feet(6 meters) tall for reference Size 10.5 shoe for reference 

 

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Is this off the Lincoln exit?  Cause if not there's another monster cluster of them in that vicinity also.  I consider these a near-native.

[Meangreen94z]

  On 4/7/2025 at 4:44 PM, Merlyn said:

@Meangreen94z that's an epic collection!  I wonder what they'll do if they start trying to grow into the building at the base.  I don't really know how much force the base can exert when expanding.  Are they like oak roots...slowly expanding to crush anything in the way?  Or because it's just a spongy cambium inside, do they just squish up against the building and stop?  

I just transplanted a triple ponytail cluster last week, with roughly 2-2.5' diameter bases.  I had stupidly planted it about 3 feet from the driveway, and after a couple of years it had already started expanding to fill all available space.  In my case I know they'd just grow over the top of the driveway eventually, and then be too heavy to easily move.  Eventually mine may look a bit like that monster cluster of 6 or so plants. 

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It seems they conform and grow around hard objects. This one was also in Harlingen and grew around both the house and also up to the sidewalk and stopped. No apparent damage to either. It was removed by the new owners is what I was told.

[Meangreen94z]

  On 4/7/2025 at 9:39 PM, ahosey01 said:

Is this off the Lincoln exit?  Cause if not there's another monster cluster of them in that vicinity also.  I consider these a near-native.

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Close by on Harrison ave almost at 77.  It was in front of a gym and a Buffalo Wild Wings 

[Merlyn]

@Meangreen94z gadzooks!  I have one that's getting close to that size, but nowhere near the house.    I can understand why they did take it down, just for the sake of the roof edge.  But it's interesting to see how it grew into the corner and basically stopped at the wall and the sidewalk.  That's really bizarre!

[richtrav]

I remember that one, they should have dozed the house and left the Beaucarnea. I used to have an old picture of those big Beaucarnea on Harrison a few months after the ‘89 freeze, basically where you see those knotty formations on the trunk is where it froze back to. 

[Meangreen94z]

  On 4/8/2025 at 10:08 PM, richtrav said:

I remember that one, they should have dozed the house and left the Beaucarnea. I used to have an old picture of those big Beaucarnea on Harrison a few months after the ‘89 freeze, basically where you see those knotty formations on the trunk is where it froze back to. 

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How old do you estimate those to be ? I’ve heard varying opinions 

[richtrav]

Records show that that house was built in 1954, so it couldn’t have been planted before that. The 50s sounds about right, 60s at the latest, they were already large in the 1990s. The building on Harrison opened as a bakery in 1945, so again that’s as early as those could have been planted.

[richtrav]

This is listed as a picture of the bakery taken in 1981

https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/jchenry_texasarch/624/

[Meangreen94z]

  On 4/9/2025 at 8:52 PM, richtrav said:

Records show that that house was built in 1954, so it couldn’t have been planted before that. The 50s sounds about right, 60s at the latest, they were already large in the 1990s. The building on Harrison opened as a bakery in 1945, so again that’s as early as those could have been planted.

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Wow, the building is older than I thought. Thank you 

[richtrav]

This one in Brownsville has been around many decades too. I probably first saw it around ‘93 or so and cannot remember much dieback on it from the ‘89 freeze. The old building it’s in front of has a front porch made of Sabal mexicana trunks. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.923105,-97.511787,3a,35.8y,241.19h,93.65t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNy-lDBW4cM6Uh6fePUNoJg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-3.646518559526612%26panoid%3DNy-lDBW4cM6Uh6fePUNoJg%26yaw%3D241.18651635273466!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en-us&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQwOC4wIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDUzSAFQAw%3D%3D

[Meangreen94z]

  On 4/10/2025 at 10:17 PM, richtrav said:

This one in Brownsville has been around many decades too. I probably first saw it around ‘93 or so and cannot remember much dieback on it from the ‘89 freeze. The old building it’s in front of has a front porch made of Sabal mexicana trunks. 

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.923105,-97.511787,3a,35.8y,241.19h,93.65t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sNy-lDBW4cM6Uh6fePUNoJg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-3.646518559526612%26panoid%3DNy-lDBW4cM6Uh6fePUNoJg%26yaw%3D241.18651635273466!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en-us&entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDQwOC4wIKXMDSoJLDEwMjExNDUzSAFQAw%3D%3D

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That’s a great one.  Keep them coming 

[Meangreen94z]

I took these pictures in Harlingen in 2019