Some Mexican palms

[Paul S]

I am recently back from 2 weeks in Mexico (again) and this time went through the south, rather than the north.  On the way I saw loads of palms, most of which were unfamiliar and most of which I didn't have time to stop and photograph.  However I did with these, and would ask for Ids.

This one was in the jungle undergrowth at Palenque in Chiapas, just a couple of strides in from the ruins:

Spiny trunk that I guess might give the game away, even if it is out of focus (well, it was dark in there!):

Here is another one about 50m from the first one - is this Chamaedorea tepejilote?

Thats my mate Phil, BTW.

[Paul S]

Then this one about 30km north of Pochutla heading towards, eventually, Oaxaca:

Thanks.

Soon I will bash out my , now customary, travelogue and will post a link to it in the other forum.

Is anyone familiar with palms around Yucatan - we saw loads of Sabals.  Most looked like Sabal mexicana that I have seen elsewhere.  There was another one that was fairly abundant - looked like Sabal mexicana with an eating disorder - very slender trunk that was evidently self-cleaning, much sparser, spikier look to it with very strongly costapalmate leaves.  In Henderson there is a photo of Sabal mauritiformis that was a dead ringer - I guess there is no reason why not?  We didn't stop to take pics as time was pressing.

Also, during the rush through the swamp that goes by the name of Tabasco we saw a few score hectares of a huge palm that I took to be an attalea of some sort - is this likely?  Interpersed with cocos and what I took to be Acoelorrahpe wrightii - again - is this likely?

[Charles Wychgel]

There was another one that was fairly abundant - looked like Sabal mexicana with an eating disorder - very slender trunk that was evidently self-cleaning, much sparser, spikier look to it with very strongly costapalmate leaves.  In Henderson there is a photo of Sabal mauritiformis that was a dead ringer - I guess there is no reason why not?  We didn't stop to take pics as time was pressing.

Also, during the rush through the swamp that goes by the name of Tabasco we saw a few score hectares of a huge palm that I took to be an attalea of some sort - is this likely?  

[Paul S]

Thanks for that Charles.  I'll have a read up on those.  I've only ever seen Chamaedorea seifritzii as a small pot plant!

I saw lots of acrocomias, I recognise them - they were intermittantly growing in small numbers dotted here and there, some in swampy ground but mainly on slightly higher places (like 10m a bove sea level, not AT sea level!  This other thing was a giant - much larger than acrocomia.  The biggest were taller than the tallest cocos with an even larger crown spread, sometimes forming huge dense stands that covered hectares of ground - but only in very low swampy areas.  Very attractive in a montser palm kind of way - you'd need a pretty large garden to do them justice, though.

Saw another palm that was only ever being cultivated, as opposed to wild, again in huge numbers in fields and only in lowland tropical areas - very common around Palenque in particular.  It was quite robust, though not as big as the attalea, with a dense shuttlecock of flat-planed leaves (like a giant Cycas circinalis) that had pronounced toothed petioles near the base.  The females had densely packed 'pinecone' shaped infructescense packed with black fruits that seemed to be the reason for growing it, judging from the stacks of cut ones at the roadsides.  I had a brief look at some pics but it is hard to tell - purely from the description they could have been elaeis or phytotelephas.  Any ideas?  Elaeis makes more sense, but the pics didn't look quite right.

[Paul S]

Sad as it is to reply to my own post, I have had a bit of a Google and come to the conclusion that, yes, those monsters are most definitely attalea and the cultivated ones are elaeis.