In search of Coccothrinax argentata x Leucothrinax morrisii, aka 'Big Pine Hybrid'

[Zeeth]

I'm in the Keys for Winter Break, and finding some of the 'Big Pine Hybrid' in habitat is something I wanted to do while here. The two share a lot of physical traits in common, so it wasn't as easy to spot the hybrid as one would think. I dug through the literature to find a single picture of the hybrid and went searching.

Here's what the hybrid looks like. As you can see, it's similar to L. morrisii, but it has more pendulous leaflets.

Here's one of the C. argentata in the area:

Here are some Leucothrinax:

 

The Blue Hole on Big Pine.

The Sabal palmetto on these islands are dwarfed due to the rock substrate:

Nice C. argentata:

L. morrisii:

This L. morrisii was relatively small

The habitat looks like this:

Nice Leucothrinax:

Another L. morrisii

Hybrid or L. morrisii? Hard to tell. 

Wasn't too sure with this one. Some of the leaflets were pretty pendulous.

This is the palm that I'm pretty sure is a hybrid. It looks similar to the picture, and all of the seed brackets were aborting. The leaflets were definitely more droopy than Leucothrinax leaflets, but the leaf-bases are split.

 

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed!

[Josh-O]

very nice habitat photos Zeeth!!

Thanks for sharing

[Zeeth]

Here's something interesting. On the left of this picture are seeds of C. argentata collected on the Silver Palm Trail in Bahia Honda, in the middle are seeds collected from a C. argentata on Big Pine surrounded by L. morrisii, and on the right are seeds of L. morrisii collected in Big Pine. It will take a long time to see if the seeds in the middle end up being hybrids, but the size difference is interesting.

 

[Mandrew968]

No leaf base pics? That would be the money shot, I figure...

[Zeeth]

56 minutes ago, Mandrew968 said:

No leaf base pics? That would be the money shot, I figure...

It was hard to get a good leaf base pic due to the amount of dead material covering them (even after I cleaned the palm up). I'll upload one that I got in a minute, but I don't know if it'll be helpful. 

I'm still not 100% confident that any of the palms were hybrids, but I feel that the one in the last 2 pics has the best chance of being one out of the ones I saw.

[Zeeth]

Here's a pic of the leaf bases of the last palm. Maybe it'll help you tell if it's a hybrid or not, but the amount of dead material in the way made me think it wouldn't be too useful. Let me know what you think.

 

[Zeeth]

Here's what the literature says about the leaf bases of the hybrid:

[Mandrew968]

You seem to keep coming into my neck of the woods but have not looked me up for a PRA... I can show you what I am growing as a Thrinax X Coccothrinax, among other stuff...  I always like meeting palmtalkers....

[Zeeth]

I'll send you a message next time I'm coming down your way. It'll be nice to see your palms in person