Visiting the Botanical Garden of Rome

[Tomas]

During a very quick visit to the garden two palms caught my interest.

The first one is labeled as Trachycarpus princeps, would be the best looking princeps I can find a picture of on Internet. The second is a nice big Sabal, with no identification tag

Tomas

 

[gyuseppe]

27 minutes ago, Tomas said:

During a very quick visit to the garden two palms caught my interest.

The first one is labeled as Trachycarpus princeps, would be the best looking princeps I can find a picture of on Internet. The second is a nice big Sabal, with no identification tag

Tomas

 

 

is Trachycarpus princeps?

[Kenarr09]

47 minutes ago, gyuseppe said:

is Trachycarpus princeps?

I would say brahea clara or super blue 

[Tomas]

I would say too, but should a brahea  not have some thorns on the petioles?

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

1 hour ago, Tomas said:

I would say too, but should a brahea  not have some thorns on the petioles?

Super silver has zero armament. That is a brahea super silver

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Aldert has a nice pic of a princeps in this thread.  

 

[Tomas]

1 hour ago, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

Aldert has a nice pic of a princeps in this thread.  

 

Well, the difference is very clear, thank you very much

[gyuseppe]

yes  brahea super silver, this was my first opinion

also in  garden botanical  naples, there is a  brahea  super silver, label   like   brahea  calcarea 
 

[Geoff]

Coincidence... I was just there last week... unfortunately had a sunny day so pics were more difficult... That silvery palm now looks morel iike a Brahea now that you photograph it without all the sun and shadows.  Nice palm, either way.

 

But did you see the palm in the background of that photo or yours?? The hugest Nannorrhops I have ever seen?!!  There was no way to get it all in one shot, and the early morning sunlight makes it really hard to appreciate its enormity... but this thing has trunks over 20' long that wind around all over the place... it's at least 30'-35' in diameter an the trunks are huge... you can me and Tammy in several different shots for scale.  Amazing palm!  

 

[Geoff]

Here's a few of my shots of this 'Trachycarpus'  I agree... looks more like a Brahea to me.  

 

One of the things that surprised me most about this garden were the lack of any 'more marginal' palms... are they not available or no interest or does it really get that cold there?  Seems like a pretty comparable climate to my old one in Tarzaana in Los Angeles... I had nearly 180 species in my garden... this one has maybe 20, and all stuff you'd expect to see in a place where it snows every year.

[gyuseppe]

21 minutes ago, Geoff said:

Coincidence... I was just there last week... unfortunately had a sunny day so pics were more difficult... That silvery palm now looks morel iike a Brahea now that you photograph it without all the sun and shadows.  Nice palm, either way.

 

But did you see the palm in the background of that photo or yours?? The hugest Nannorrhops I have ever seen?!!  There was no way to get it all in one shot, and the early morning sunlight makes it really hard to appreciate its enormity... but this thing has trunks over 20' long that wind around all over the place... it's at least 30'-35' in diameter an the trunks are huge... you can me and Tammy in several different shots for scale.  Amazing palm!  

 

is a real one  treasure  living, was made from seed by Odoardo Beccari,collected during one of his journeys

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

Im surprised that nannorhorps hasnt flowered and killed the stem. Very odd specimen indeed. 

[topwater]

47 minutes ago, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

Im surprised that nannorhorps hasnt flowered and killed the stem. Very odd specimen indeed. 

This. 

I can almost believe Beccari planted it himself, unreal. 

[Tomas]

3 hours ago, gyuseppe said:

But did you see the palm in the background of that photo or yours?? The hugest Nannorrhops I have ever seen?!!  There was no way to get it all in one shot, and the early morning sunlight makes it really hard to appreciate its enormity... but this thing has trunks over 20' long that wind around all over the place... it's at least 30'-35' in diameter an the trunks are huge... you can me and Tammy in several different shots for scale.  Amazing palm!

Yes, it surely is a rarity, said to be planted by Beccari at the end of the 19th century, so more than 120 years old. It also is difficult to believe that this plant is monocarpic, there are some trunks as short as two meters already flowering and others many meters long.

[Tomas]

17 hours ago, Geoff said:

One of the things that surprised me most about this garden were the lack of any 'more marginal' palms... are they not available or no interest or does it really get that cold there?  Seems like a pretty comparable climate to my old one in Tarzaana in Los Angeles... I had nearly 180 species in my garden... this one has maybe 20, and all stuff you'd expect to see in a place where it snows every year.

17 hours ago, Geoff said:

One of the things that surprised me most about this garden were the lack of any 'more marginal' palms... are they not available or no interest or does it really get that cold there?  Seems like a pretty comparable climate to my old one in Tarzaana in Los Angeles... I had nearly 180 species in my garden... this one has maybe 20, and all stuff you'd expect to see in a place where it snows every year.

17 hours ago, Geoff said:

 

[Tomas]

Sorry about the mess I did above, I am not able to edit nor delete it

  14 hours ago, TexasColdHardyPalms said:

Im surprised that nannorhorps hasnt flowered and killed the stem. Very odd specimen indeed. 

I just got a confirmation from a friend of mine that is a better observer than me: before flowering the stem will branch and only the flowering branch will die. You can see the scars on the trunks in Geoff's photos

[Tomas]

Geoff, you are right in all your observations on the lack of "marginal palms", the existing palms are, with the exception of the Syagrus romanzoffiana and some small palms, the survivors of the big freeze of 1985 (some Washingtonia robusta got killed, to give an idea), the curators are very conservative and quite ignorant in fact of palms and there is very little introduction of any plants, not only palms.

At the other part, the staff must be credited for saving nearly all the palms from the RPW

 

Tomas

[Sanips]

Recently an Italian member of the EPS told us that five years ago he donated a lot of palms and this year he came back to see them. For his regret, he found his precious donations abandoned on a corner and in the same pot he left them. He brought them back to his home.

[TexasColdHardyPalms]

8 hours ago, Sanips said:

Recently an Italian member of the EPS told us that five years ago he donated a lot of palms and this year he came back to see them. For his regret, he found his precious donations abandoned on a corner and in the same pot he left them. He brought them back to his home.

On 11/12/2017, 10:10:14, Tomas said:

 

What a bummer......

[Geoff]

Wow... that is sad.  They have plenty of room for more nice palms... but apparently a poor attitude concerning improving the garden's collection.  Oh well.