Chamaedorea frondosa

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

Hello to all, I got this Chamaedorea from Jungle Music a while back.  It is know flowering and it is a female.  This is a very rare plant and I would love to produce seed so others can enjoy!  Let me know if you know of any plants out there.  Thanks Jeff

[PalmGuyWC]

Hi Jeff,

Cham. fondosa is a species I'm not familiar with, but it looks very much like Cham, Ernesti-Augustii, even the female flower spikes. If you can't find pollen of C. fondosa you might try C. Ernesti-augustii and see what happens.

Dick

[Phil]

Dick,

It's similar to but definitely not the same as an ernesti-augustii.  Don Hodel is aware of this species but I am not sure why it was not described in his book.  Maybe it was discovered after publishing.  If you saw it side by side with other species, you'd definitely see the differences.  I think Jeff wants to get pure seeds, but if he wanted to hybridize, I think e-a, geonomiformis, or a similar simple leaf Chamaedorea would work.

Phil

[PalmGuyWC]

Phil,

I tried to cross C. geonomiformis with other Chams. but never had any luck. It will cross with C. tenella, but many consider C. tenella to be just another form of C. geonomiformis.

I was sucessfull in crossing C. Ernesti-Augustii with Satorii and Stolonifera. I tried many times but was never sucessfull crossing C. metallica with anything. Unfortunately C. Satorii is almost lost from cultivation, since there are other Chams. with a similar apperance that are prettier, such as C. oblongata.

Apparently Don Hodel collected some plants of C. rhizomatosis which he put into the Eleutheropetalum group. This was a palm that was not discovered when I was hybridizing and I have never seen one. I'm sorry I never got to play with that one, as it would probably cross with one of the Eleutheropetalum group.

Dick

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

Hi Dick, If I don't have any pollen I will try something else, I have a few other plants in flower right now.  I just have not decided which one yet. I have a lot of the ones you mentioned in flower right now. I am going to email Mr. Hodel because I was told from Mr. Whitelock that he has a know male.

Thanks, Jeff

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hi Jeff

There is about 15-20 of the C. frondosa in Australia, so far they have all been female, about 5  have not shown what sex they are, we have our fingers crossed hoping for males, we know each other well, if there is a male it will be moved about if necessary to get the timing right, hopefully cutting of the male flower will be enough, good luck with the search,

regards

colin

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

Thanks Colin!