Areca vestiara 'yellow crownshaft'

[metalfan]

I got this as a trade from a lady in Cape Coral last season. Its finally getting big enough that when I lift up the leaves, I can see real yellow on the trunk! Very exciting! (to me anyway)

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I wanna see the yellow!  Lift up the leaf!  Take another picture... PLeeeeeeeeeeze!

[Walter John]

Yeh, I've only heard of red, maroon or orange. Let's see.

[metalfan]

I don't think I can get the camera down that low, guys!

But there is a yellow one.

[Tyrone]

Looks real nice and healthy

regards

Tyrone

[Exotic Life]

It's little but looks good Thanks for sharing this picture too!

Robbin

[metalfan]

Robbin, most of my palms are little because I bought them as seedlings or got small palms as trades. The only large ones I have are my very oldest palms, which are pushing maybe 6-8 years old (I have no idea how old they were when I got them...): Licuala grandis, Pelagadoxa henryana, and Kerridoxa elegans. My Salacca magnifica is large because it is a fast grower, not due to age (I just got that less than 2 years ago as a one gallon plant!) Its fun watching the plants go from teeny tiny to bigger. You get to see all phases, like how the leaf type changes on most, to color changes on new leaves, etc.

[cobra2326]

Hmm, I got one of these from Jeff Marcus last year.  I think I killed it though, have to look.  I was very excited about it too... so sad.

[cobra2326]

I wonder if this photo is of a mature one?

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/144362/

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Does anyone have a picture of this palm that exhibits the "yellow" feature?

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Read my mind much Jon?

[Creekside]

I've found the yellow ones to be trickier and slower growing.  I bought just three of them - one died, one's considering buying the farm, and one's doing very well (but slower than my orange and red types.)

[bgl]

Jon (cobra),

yes, the one in the link (post #9) is a  mature Areca vestiaria. When planted in rocky conditions with little soil they will grow very impressive stiltroots. If planted in a fair amount of soil, then those same roots will primarily be surface roots.

Whatever it's referred to - yellow, orange or maroon - I'm convinced it's all one and the same. There are obvious differences, such as a maroon colored new frond always opening on the so-called maroon one.

HOWEVER, the "orange" and the "yellow" ones are so close in color with no clear dividing line that I believe it's pointless trying to distinguish between them. The maroon one does differ since it opens up with a maroon new frond (while the yellow/orange always opens up with a green frond), but it's still all the same. A maroon individual will produce offspring that's either maroon OR yellow/orange, and I have seen volunteer seedlings from orange ones that have the maroon new leaf.

I have a total of 229 Areca vestiaria in the ground (more than any other palm) in full sun, in deep shade, in partial shade, in deep soil and in rocky conditions and everything in between so I have a good number of individuals to observe and draw conclusions from.

Here's a maroon one.

[bgl]

And the stiltroots of an "orange" one.

[metalfan]

Cool, Bo! Do you think it could be something in the soil composition that makes one more yellow or more orange?

[bgl]

Gina,

I don't think so. If that were the case, most of mine would be much closer in color. I think the various colors are in the genes of each individual Areca vestiaria. Just like siblings can have different colored eyes (blue, brown) even though they have the same parents, same with the different colors in vestiaria palms. Some will inherit the maroon trait from a parent, and others won't. But it may also simply skip a generation. So a maroon plant will have either orange or maroon offspring. And then the orange offspring from that maroon parent can have offspring that will be either orange OR maroon.

Here are two A. vestiaria seedlings. They are from not just the same parent, but from the very same seedbatch. About 70% came out maroon (and will maintain that color), while about 30% are the so called orange (and always open up with a new frond that's green).

Bo-Göran

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Bo, do clumpers always produce clumpers and solitaries always produce solitaries? Or is it a mixed bag like the color traits?

[metalfan]

WHy are your fronds so much longer than mine?

[bgl]

Bill,

Same deal with single trunked and multi trunked individuals. From that one seed batch (the two seedlings above) I have maroon ones that are single trunked as well as multi trunked AND orange ones (with green new fronds) that are single trunked as well as multi trunked. It covers the entire spectrum.

And Gina,

those two seedlings above may be somewhat stretched since they have been grown in close proximity to all their siblings!

Bo-Göran

[Utopia Palms]

Hi all

I think you will find that you do not have the yellow form of Areca Vestiaria which is from the islands of Ternate and Tidore and is very rare in cultivation, also its more green than yellow in most plants i have ever seen!  Bo I think Jeff Marcus has a one in his collection if you would like to see one but they do not look any where near as nice as the orange or the sport that came from this form that has been cultivated to what we call the red or “maroon” form these days!

Clayton

[Neofolis]

When I was researching Areca vestiaria a short while ago, it was implied that in the native populations there are more Red/Maroon at higher altitudes and more Orange at lower altitudes and that most native populations are almost exclusively one or the other.  Is the variation Bo is experiencing possibly the result of mixed genes from interbreeding of separate populations over several generations?

[cobra2326]

(Utopia Palms @ Jan. 09 2008,23:17)

QUOTE

Hi all

I think you will find that you do not have the yellow form of Areca Vestiaria which is from the islands of Ternate and Tidore and is very rare in cultivation, also its more green than yellow in most plants i have ever seen!  Bo I think Jeff Marcus has a one in his collection if you would like to see one but they do not look any where near as nice as the orange or the sport that came from this form that has been cultivated to what we call the red or “maroon” form these days!

Clayton

I had one, and I got it from Jeff Marcus!

[bgl]

Corey,

I don't know the answer to your question, and I seriously doubt that anyone else does either.

Bo-Göran

As I mentioned above, I really believe that these are simply differences between individuals, just like human siblings are different. And to show how little - IF ANY- color difference there is on the crownshaft, here are two groups: the "orange" and the "maroon" (and I was tempted to make this into a guessing game, but decided against it!). First, the "orange" Areca vestiaria.

[bgl]

And the "maroon" ones

[ariscott]

My orange and maroon ones look VERY different, unlike yours Bo. Is it just the lighting, or do they look similar (the colour of crownshaft) when they are older?

Regards, Ari

[Tyrone]

Bo, they're gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.  

Love em

regards

Tyrone

[bgl]

Ari,

No, it's not just the lighting - the crownshaft color is very very close, if not the same. The only way to really tell the difference is the fact that the new frond opens up either maroon or green depending on if it's a maroon or orange individivual.

Bo-Göran

[www.dadluvsu.com]

Bo, How old are those palms from seed?  The big one I planted in my front yard gonna take a forever to grow that big!  (Watching it daily really seems to slow it down! :laugh: )  Grow baby Grow!

Edit: OH MY WORD!!!  Bo, those growth nodes are rediculous!  I think mine are about a third of the distance apart from yours!

[bgl]

Bill,

The ones in post#23 were planted from 3G pots in May 1996. They were probably around 5 years old at the time, which would mean about 17 years old today from germination, give or take a year. Overall height right around 20 ft.

Post#24: about the size of yours when planted in Aug 2001. Probably about 4 years old at the time, so they would be right around ten years old today.

Bo-Göran

[www.dadluvsu.com]

It is easy to see why you have more of this palm than anyother Bo.  It sure is a looker!  And the the look of all theose seeds it looks like your setting out to create and army of this beauty! I think is a serious contender for my vote of "Most Favorite Palm Overall"

Sorry to have kinda hijacked your thread here Gina.

[Utopia Palms]

That’s a good question Corey and not many people would know the answer to that one, as far as I know the red/maroon form has come from selective breeding over 4 generation from a breeder in Indonesia in Bogor, wether the first red plant was originally collected from altitude I will have to ask the breeder,

But he has only chosen the very best as in the “reddest” ones or darkest ones to breed from once they have then flowered and produced offspring he has then only chosen the best 10 or so of these to do the same thing over again and so on. I would say at a guess that it was just a “sport ” and has not been collected from altitude, but I will check for you Corey.

One thing I should have mentioned also about the Yellow form of A.vestiara is that it’s always a solitary palm and can have stilt roots up to 2m long! It’s quite different from the Orange /maroon form.

And yes Jeff. Marcus should have seedlings and plants as there are two seeding plants here in Australia hidden in privet collections that I know that Jeff has received seeds from these plants, so if you have some plants from Jeff. Marcus you do have the true species.

Bo you have the perfect environment there your Areca’s look picture perfect it would make a great post card! I know many people durule.. over lipstick palms but for those who do not live it the tropics this has to be the next best thing and those couple of photos clearly show this!! Thank you for the great photos.

Clayton

[Carlo Morici]

Clayton, it is a really interesting story! So Ternate and Tidore, in Maluku, only host populations of solitary yellow-cronshafted vestiarias with tall stilt roots? Or were the yellow palms cherry-picked among the reds? Where to read more?

Corey where did you read about the altitudinal distribution of maroon/green forms?

Hey, what a palm!

Carlo

[Neofolis]

That's a good question Carlo, I was hunting all over the internet to find information on them at the time.  I will have another look and see if I can find the source again.

[PALM MOD]

PACSOA mentions the color variation by elevation. However, it is not the orange/red/green variation or distribution, but the overall intensity of color increasing with elevation.

http://www.pacsoa.org.au/palms/Areca/vestiaria.html

[Neofolis]

Thanks Dean, being a regular vistor to the PACSOA site, I'd imagine that was part of my reading.

This suggests to me that the crownshaft/petiole colour, at least of the Red/Maroon and the Orange forms is totally environmental rather than genetic.  That would explain why Bo's all look very similar in colour.  The new red leaf may be genetic, as it stays consistent in an individual for the life of the palm.  There doesn't seem to be any mention of new red leaves on the PACSOA site, although I only skimmed the text this time.  Does anyone know if the new red leaf is a trait seen in habitat or just cultivated palms.  If it is just cultivated palms, surely that is the result of the breeding program that Clayton referred to and hence genetic.

[metalfan]

Okay being the total air head I am, I forgot that I actually have TWO of these. One is teh trade plant, the other is the one I also got from Jeff Marcus. I realized this by looking in my clever little palm diary. SOmetimes, things get lost in the greenhouse, LOL, and I had to remember where I planted this 2nd one.

It too has a yellow (at least to ME) trunk, and its a little taller so I was able to get photos.

So, you may disagree, but to ME, this is yellow, not orange.

[metalfan]

another view

[metalfan]

One more, different lighting

[waykoolplantz]

Mello Yello

[www.dadluvsu.com]

I would call that yellow for certain...

Is that one yours Mike?

Sure is a beauty!