Newest Acquisition H. Belmoreana

[el-blanco]

I already have 1 of these already but could not resist this one.  Nice 15 gallon from Blue Bell palms in Anaheim.

In the ground photos to follow.

Post pictures of yours if you have this species.

JW

 

[Darold Petty]

Very nice !

[Justin]

There's some very mature ones in and around my new neighborhood, all gorgeous.

[Tracy]

Howea belmoreana definitely has a very distinctive appearance.  Here is one of mine.

[Darold Petty]

This reminds me of a potential topic, The dirty secret about H. belmoreana.  This species is variable in the degree of keeled and recurved shape of the fronds.

  Some are just OK, and some, like Tracy's palm, are superior.  I have examples of this spectrum of frond shape with my own plants. 

[DoomsDave]

19 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

This reminds me of a potential topic, The dirty secret about H. belmoreana.  This species is variable in the degree of keeled and recurved shape of the fronds.

  Some are just OK, and some, like Tracy's palm, are superior.  I have examples of this spectrum of frond shape with my own plants. 

Pictures?

[Darold Petty]

Within 24 hours, Dave, I am totally busy today ! 

[Matt in OC]

One of my favorites! Here's the granddaddy in Balboa Park.

[BS Man about Palms]

Looking pretty sweet there El Blanco!!!  This is one I sold to Sherman gardens about the same size a few years back...It was big and I basically just was their buyer. ..

[BS Man about Palms]

My own in my front yard is getting pretty hard to photograph... but its fighting for the light!

[Tracy]

3 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

This species is variable in the degree of keeled and recurved shape of the fronds.

  Some are just OK, and some, like Tracy's palm, are superior.  I have examples of this spectrum of frond shape with my own plants. 

Darold, do you think that the less recurved specimens could have been hybrids with Howea forsteriana?  I really like the recurved look.  Our moderator and  now his son have a nice very recurved one that you can see from the street in Dean's old, now Dorian's garden here in Leucadia.

[Matt in OC]

1 hour ago, Tracy said:

Darold, do you think that the less recurved specimens could have been hybrids with Howea forsteriana?  I really like the recurved look.  Our moderator and  now his son have a nice very recurved one that you can see from the street in Dean's old, now Dorian's garden here in Leucadia.

@Mark M @ S. Oceanside palms showed me a beautiful one that is supposedly a hybrid. It's worth some pictures!

[Darold Petty]

I never saw any intermediate forms on LHI.  The four palm zones have very little overlap.  There is one palm here in San Francisco that seems like a potential F1.  I'll try for a photograph of that one also.

No observed hybrids in habitat does not mean this is not possible in California.  Plants don't necessarily behave the same out of habitat.  I have two very large Rhopalostylis sapida x baueri.  All of my visitors from Oz or NZ insist this is not possible because the two species flower at different times of year.  In my garden, and San Diego gardens, they do flower concurrently.  My plants exhibit characters of both species.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Matt in OC said:

@Mark M @ S. Oceanside palms showed me a beautiful one that is supposedly a hybrid. It's worth some pictures!

Just to clarify, I was discussing the Howea belmoreana, not the hybrids in my comments after asking Darold if the less recurved ones could be hybrids.  The nice specimen in Dorian's garden here in Leucadia that I have seen while walking by is the real deal (Howea belmoreana).  I will be interested in seeing what the hybrids look like.  Relative to Darold's comments above about "natural hybrids" in habitat not existing, it goes without saying that outside habitat, humans intervention has created some really interesting hybrids, both in palms and other plants.

[BS Man about Palms]

I am 99.9% sure I have a hybrid that I planted near my Kentia and Belmore. I got it from Palm Mountain waaaay back and at first while getting it was told it was a Hedy.... when I noted it looked very different (Bunches of them in 1 gal pots.) I was then told they were Belmores. They did not look Belmores I found out later, BUT these exhibited Hybrid vigor PLUS! I got two, Put one in a 15 gal and it took off, the other left in a 1 gal. During the 2007 freeze event, due to location or more likely my learning curve, I killed the 15 gal. After a while I had looked at these a while I decided it had to be a Hybrid. My Kentia had super droopy fronds, the Belmore was recurved and upright and these were right in the middle. Basically a flat leaf. After I found a very good Belmore in a 15 gal and planted it next to my Kentia within a short time I decided to plant the remaining 1 gal. At the time the Kentia was nearly trunking, the Howea a Very nice 15 gal, maybe slightly smaller than El Blancos and in went the 1 gal Hybrid. It took maybe 2 years to pass the belmore, another year or two to catch the Kentia and now has probably 5' of trunk and holding a few seeds. (no idea if viable at all).

I am also sure that Marks palm came from the same batch.

I "think" I started a thread about it/them waaay back, I'll look.

[Steve Mac]

Mine are hard to see, they are jammed in. They all came together years ago bought from Lord Howe  Island.

The first little one is in heavy shade, it may account for the different growth rates.

 

[Steve Mac]

Only guessing but I would imagine that having bought my 3 from Lord Howe Island that 'they' would know what they were, unfortunately for me, my plants are not the strikingly recurved or keeled ones. The under developed one looks like any number of various Chamaedoreas around it, and the two big ones are no different just bigger.

I'm just suggesting that just because they don't recurve may not be sufficient reason to suspect a hybrid. Mind you we have all bought plants mislabelled haven't we. As Darold said they are highly variable.

 

[Darold Petty]

 I have some fresh photos, but they are not very good.  The best photos of the best forms are previously posted by Tracy and Matt in OC.  The fronds are both highly keeled in their attachment to the rachis ( above the horizontal, and less than 180 degrees)  and the rachis is highly recurved.

The first two photos show my palms I consider good. 

The third photo is one of mine that is inferior, with a more flat blade.  This plant was imported from the LHI nursery, so the ID is correct.  It is quite similar to the one just posted by GTSteve. I am so disappointed with this one that I might yet remove it. 

The last photo is the "odd" Howea in my old neighborhood of Cole Valley. There has been conjecture that it might be an F1 hybrid.  I spoke with the owner today, and there is 'some' chance that he will allow me to use an extension ladder for a closer examination.   

[el-blanco]

She is in the ground.  Love all your pictures of this species.

[Moose]

On ‎4‎/‎12‎/‎2018‎ ‎12‎:‎39‎:‎42‎, BS Man about Palms said:

My own in my front yard is getting pretty hard to photograph... but its fighting for the light!

Wow Bill, I can see mulch and the top of your soil in your third photo! The lack of copious amounts of towering weeds is impressive!  

[Tracy]

On 4/12/2018, 7:49:03, Darold Petty said:

This species is variable in the degree of keeled and recurved shape of the fronds.

Shortly after this I was visiting my cousin's garden and noticed two side by side.  One with very recurved leaves which had tips pointing toward the ground (the taller one behind) and another smaller one in front which didn't exhibit nearly the amount of recurved leaves.