Possible Ceratozamia hybrid in a public garden

[redbeard917]

I went to a place I love to visit, the Gizella Kopsick Palm Arboretum a few days ago. Near the entrance there are a number of Ceratozamia hildae planted. One of them looks to be a hybrid, possibly with latifolia.

[redbeard917]

[redbeard917]

Flushes were red.

[redbeard917]

[redbeard917]

Entire plant.

[Alicehunter2000]

That's what it looks like with my limited knowlege.

[The Silent Seed]

I am sorry to derail - but I keep hearing again and again about the awesome Cycads at this garden - and its acquisition of some significant collections in the past. I am curious if they are doing anything to propagate the plants, or? 

[carver]

The leaves look longer and stiffer than most hildae, nice whatever it is.

Jude there is atleast one volunteer interested in propagating. Most of the Zamia produce seed on their own, but these could be crosses with open pollination. There also aren't pairs of every species, and some of the plants are labeled incorrectly. It is a public park with limited resources and trying to keep track of everything coning at the same time is difficult for a volunteer based organization.

My friend and I were able to cross a couple of encephalartos of different species there, but without true sexed pairs it's a crapshoot to pollinate with what's receptive at the time. I agree though a collection as extensive as Kopsik should get more attention from the cycad community to produce next generation plants.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

I agree with Carver. Ive been by there three years in a row and the ferox and gratus cone yearly as well as a few dioons and its a shame they go unpolinated.  Most of the zamia have fertile seed but you'd never be able to know for sure what their polinated with.  I will admit that I borrowed some Cycas Scratchleyana x Rumphii F1 pollen earlier this year while on vacation and polinated two of my revoluta females, which are loaded up with seed right now. 

[cycadjungle]

That is just a brown emergent hildae. There are very few, they seem to be recessive. Some of those hildaes are mine. I've been trying to breed my brown plants for about 10 years. I have about 40 good sized plants now, but I do sell a few each year to people who really want them. Many times the female cones don't open up, so breeding has been slow going.

 I don't think seeds of anything worth while would survive it out there in the open. Places like Fairchild have had such problem with theft and they have walls around the place. There are a lot more pairs than it appears. They just need to set in for a few more years. I'm fertilizing the cycads but not specifically the exact timing to promote any special species. Also, it is illegal to fertilize anything in the county during June through the end of September, so I have to wait till October 1 before I can hit them again. To promote cones on the Encephalartos, I should have hit them a couple of months ago. For now, it might at least be a good source of very rare pollen. There are a lot of female cones going to waste out in the world because people can't find the pollen, but it is there.  Tom

[aussiearoids]

it is illegal to fertilize anything in the county during June !!!

WHY ?

[Brad-Tampa]

The use of fertilizers during the rainy season is prohibited in a number of counties near the coast. Fertilizer runoff into the estuarine habitat leads to decreased water quality and resulting impacts to submerged aquatic vegetation, such as seagrass, which further leads to decreased water quality. Instead it is encourged that fertilizing occur in the spring and fall.

[Tracy]

2 minutes ago, Brad-Tampa said:

The use of fertilizers during the rainy season is prohibited in a number of counties near the coast. Fertilizer runoff into the estuarine habitat leads to decreased water quality and resulting impacts to submerged aquatic vegetation, such as seagrass, which further leads to decreased water quality. Instead it is encourged that fertilizing occur in the spring and fall.

Seems like I recall hearing about some algae blooms which have been problematic as well in parts of Florida.  Have some of those been near you on the Gulf side?  I would imagine that fertilizer runoff would only exacerbate the algae and possibly bacterial blooms. 

[Brad-Tampa]

Controlling elevated aquatic and marine algae levels is the target 

[cycadjungle]

I was going to answer that question, but Brad did it 5 times better, he IS the expert though. Most of all that bad glow green algae was because of the massive amount of water being released out of lake Okeechobee and ran it down the St. Lucie river. I don't know how many sections of sugar cane land runs off into this area, but is a hell of a lot of fertilizer.

[carver]

Was walking through Kopsik this morning and saw a couple of things that are hard to control with a volunteer based park open to the public.

this poor Zamia tuerckheimii from the U.A. collection was vandalized. One time I watched a lady's unleashed dog rip the crown off two Trachys destroying the growing point. Theft is also hard to control, I haven't noticed anything recent but have in the past.

Mis labeled plants also.

 I love this garden and feel lucky to have it so close to home, just wish more people appreciated it the way it was intended to be. The volunteers are a great group, I wish I had more time to offer up help.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Geez, something just ripped the top of it off.