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Phytelephas macrocarpa


realarch

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An interesting palm, interesting genus. These have grown rather quickly and have been flowering for about a year now. 

Since only two small ones were available when I acquired them a few years back, I was extremely lucky to get both the male and female palms.

The male inflorescence is a soft white tassel that releases the fine powdery pollen when touched. 

The fruit on the female are clusters of hard spikey tennis ball size seed pods. I have no idea when the seeds become ripe, but it looks as though it will take quite awhile. 

I just noticed the female flowers yesterday and will have to post of photo tomorrow.

I do have a P. aquatorialis, but it's still a small juvenile. 

Here are a few photos. 

Tim

 

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  • Upvote 8

Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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Nice looking double Tim :greenthumb:  I have a small Seemanii (3  ft) pretty slow so far, hope it picks up speed, got a  Tenuicaulis on its way since they are so cold hardy.   Pete

                                                                                                   P1030540.jpg      

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Thanks Ahamed. 

Pete, I need to repost some pics I have of P. tenuicaulis in habitat from a trip to the Amazon back in 2006. Absolutely fantastic as they dominated the understory in certain places.

Tim

Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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Thanks for the photos of a palm I've hardly seen. They remind me of Attaleas.

Meg

Palms of Victory I shall wear

Cape Coral (It's Just Paradise)
Florida
Zone 10A on the Isabelle Canal
Elevation: 15 feet

I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus' garden in the shade.

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Thanks Meg, PTDude.

Here's a photo of the female inflorescence, really quite unique. 

Tim

 

 

P1030610.jpg

  • Upvote 3

Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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11 hours ago, realarch said:

Thanks Ahamed. 

Pete, I need to repost some pics I have of P. tenuicaulis in habitat from a trip to the Amazon back in 2006. Absolutely fantastic as they dominated the understory in certain places.

Tim

Look fwd to the pics Tim :greenthumb:    Pete

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  • 5 months later...

I can offer a few more pics of this species described above by Tim's fascinating topic and pictures. All of my pics are from Inkaterra in Peru, where IPS had its off-year meeting in October 2013. Here's one in the partially cultivated forest around the lodge:

5897941f3263a_499-Phytelephasmacrocarpa.

This is one that I saw several times each day because it was close to the door of my lodge:

589794727a0ff_536-Phytelephasmacrocarpaa

Here's a flower pic (male?):

58979476ea52b_540-Phytelephasmacrocarpam

And here is one of the huge, multi-seeded fruits that they produce:

5897947b9d218_551-Phytelephasmacrocarpaf

I had a single seed of Phy mac several years ago, but it didn't sprout.

 

  • Upvote 1

Mike Merritt

Big Island of Hawaii, windward, rainy side, 740 feet (225 meters) elevation

165 inches (4,200 mm) of rain per year, 66 to 83 deg F (20 to 28 deg C) in summer, 62 to 80 deg F (16.7 to 26.7 Deg C) in winter.

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Thanks for the comments and the photos too. 

Finally, here are some habitat photos of P. tenuicaulis on the Napo river in Ecuador. They were the dominant understory palm

in this particular area. Of course there were lots of Iriartea, Socratea, Astrocaryum, Euterpe, Geonoma, Desmoncus, and more. 

Tim

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Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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A few more.......P. tenuicaulis has a distinctive trunk as well.

Tim

IMG_2245.jpg

IMG_2292.jpg

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Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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Oh, and one more thing. I've noticed that my Phytelephas are starting to clump, and I believe P. tenuicaulis is the only one that does that. So, what I thought

was P. macrocarpa might not be.

As far as the seed goes, they take awhile to ripen and I'm going to wait until they do, like 18 months. I removed one of the seed pods and opened it up back when I posted the 

first photos, and it was just a creamy mess and wasn't close to solidifying. Patience. 

Tim 

Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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So  Phytelephas tenuicaulis is hardier than P. macrocarpa?

 

 

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Isn't Phytelephas the palm that has seeds so hard that they can be carved like ivory? 

 

Joseph C. Le Vert

Augusta, GA

USA

Zone 8

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After 2 years long :D  . A useful observation : The seeds that were part covered part exposed to the sun germinated first .589c81a77e12e_Jarina-Atalleatripla002.th589c81d7bb19c_Jarina-Atalleatripla003.th589c820410c95_Jarina-Atalleatripla004.th

Caixeta

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