Dypsis malcomberi

[richnorm]

I was reading POM last night and D. malcomberi there is a mention of ramenta and the grownshaft is a yellowy/green, no mention of tomentum/fuzz. So this would discount Jerry's/Pauleen's plants as D. malcomberi.

Matty, look at the picture for D. pilulifera in POM. Doesn't it look REALLY close to Pauleens pictured on post #66?

Yes, and my pilulifera which looks like the standard orange crush at this stage but was from a plant identified in habitat as a Ravenea sp. I can see how you could make that sort of mistake 15 years ago in a natural forest setting when confronted with a plant like Pauleen's. Maybe it is just that some develop irregular leaflet arrangements and some don't as pointed out in POM. Wouldn't be a surprise if the amount of tomentum varied either. The question in my mind is why do people think that red mealy petioled plant is the real malcomberi and not manajarensis. I've not seen an explanation of the reasoning here, or maybe I missed it.

[Matt in SD]

As far as I know, Dransfield identified orange crush as pilulifera based on complete material from Bo. Flowers, fruit/seed, seeing mature plants in person etc... Naming is a weird thing, it is possible that some of the descriptions of the actual mature plant in POM came from observations of palms in habitat that they thought were pilulifera. This would have been based on matching of type material (old dried plant parts) to live plants in the field. If orange crush is a perfect match to the type material, then I think orange crush is pilulifera, end of story. Some of the POM description may actually just not be right. Of course it could just be a variable species too.

Matt

[MattyB]

I was reading POM last night and D. malcomberi there is a mention of ramenta and the grownshaft is a yellowy/green, no mention of tomentum/fuzz. So this would discount Jerry's/Pauleen's plants as D. malcomberi.

Matty, look at the picture for D. pilulifera in POM. Doesn't it look REALLY close to Pauleens pictured on post #66?

Bill, that pic is taken from a billion yards away.

[richnorm]

I was reading POM last night and D. malcomberi there is a mention of ramenta and the grownshaft is a yellowy/green, no mention of tomentum/fuzz. So this would discount Jerry's/Pauleen's plants as D. malcomberi.

Matty, look at the picture for D. pilulifera in POM. Doesn't it look REALLY close to Pauleens pictured on post #66?

Bill, that pic is taken from a billion yards away.

I guess if you see enough images your brain becomes very adept and seeing similarities and differences - like recognising a familiar face. Even relative newcomers such as me can often recognise a dypsis at a very young age but there is no way we can put into words why, it just looks right. I suspect Bill has a very good eye.

[BS Man about Palms]

Thanks Rich!

and I barely even know you.

Take that, Bradford.