Syagrus x costae

[Tala]

These palms were originally considered a hybrid between the ubiquitous coronata and oleracea, their habitats cross in Minas Gerais and Bahia but is now considered to be a cross between coronata and cearensis (per Noblick). I can't recall if this was pub. in Palmcipes at any time or not, one of these ys will go back and cross reference my issues. Does anyone else know or have the info handy? I haven't seen very many mature cearensis, the 1st one I ever saw was against a bldg near MBC entrance I think. Plus cearensis splits underground, forming usually 2 symmetrical stems, prob. more but again I've little exp. with them. The old attached leaf bases resemble a coronata stem, also the petioles keep coronata's fibrous Butia-like teeth. But the fruits are large and nearly round, tasty when ripe but only for a few days. Local birds here love them. I get very erratic germination off seed the few times I tried them, now I just let them fall to the ground as insect fodder (lest I ruin my rep as a hybrid hater)...

acquired in '96 w/ some wood already, had to dig out of a site filled w/ limestone in Ft. Myers area. It grows slow maybe a ft per yr, 7 to 8 fronds, is very drought tolerant and loves full sun as all Syagrus do. The foliage is extremely intolerant of cold, any frost burns the leaves or temps below 30f damage starts to occur. Tho' it has defoliated on numerous occasions (and this is why it gets to stay here) it never fails to grow back, and looks perfectly healthy within a yr's time. Any longer and it would have to go. You can see the 9 ft roofline to est. the overall size.

[Tala]

heres the crown, you can see how the leaflets lay flat, and as they age they become almost flaccid.

[Tala]

finally here is a pic of the seed with one SC Queen seed for size comp. No fruits on the palm right now, they are very fleshy.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Mines still in a 5 gallon pot after 4 years. Very slow growth but it holds lots of deep green, still whole leaves at a time. It tolerates our long cool winters very well. I'll move it to a sunnier, warmer spot this Spring and hope for faster growth but I have a feeling that this species needs lots of heat to grow much.

[edbrown_III]

These palms were originally considered a hybrid between the ubiquitous coronata and oleracea, their habitats cross in Minas Gerais and Bahia but is now considered to be a cross between coronata and cearensis (per Noblick). I can't recall if this was pub. in Palmcipes at any time or not, one of these ys will go back and cross reference my issues. Does anyone else know or have the info handy? I haven't seen very many mature cearensis, the 1st one I ever saw was against a bldg near MBC entrance I think. Plus cearensis splits underground, forming usually 2 symmetrical stems, prob. more but again I've little exp. with them. The old attached leaf bases resemble a coronata stem, also the petioles keep coronata's fibrous Butia-like teeth. But the fruits are large and nearly round, tasty when ripe but only for a few days. Local birds here love them. I get very erratic germination off seed the few times I tried them, now I just let them fall to the ground as insect fodder (lest I ruin my rep as a hybrid hater)...

acquired in '96 w/ some wood already, had to dig out of a site filled w/ limestone in Ft. Myers area. It grows slow maybe a ft per yr, 7 to 8 fronds, is very drought tolerant and loves full sun as all Syagrus do. The foliage is extremely intolerant of cold, any frost burns the leaves or temps below 30f damage starts to occur. Tho' it has defoliated on numerous occasions (and this is why it gets to stay here) it never fails to grow back, and looks perfectly healthy within a yr's time. Any longer and it would have to go. You can see the 9 ft roofline to est. the overall size.

Dave,

send me an email to edbrown_3@bellsouth.net and I will send a scaned description of it from Palmeras Brasileros

Best regards

Ed

[Eric in Orlando]

Nice palm! And the Beccariophoenix behind it looks like it is growing nicely.

We have one growing well. It was recieved as S. comosa but has since been ID'ed as S. x costae. In Feb. 1996 it was defoliated by 26F but only had minor burn after 27F in Jan. 2003. It flowers and fruits but I have never gotten any seed to germinate and never found seedlings at the base. But then again I have never checked for embryos so it might be setting sterile seed.

[Gileno Machado]

Hi Tala and friends,

Syagrus x costae was identified in habitat and described a long time ago by Prof. Glassman (Illinois) and named after my friend Prof. Medeiros Costa from Recife, who found the palm in habitat during their many palm search tours around NE Brazil.

The natural occuring hybrid was located in the small town of Brejão, State of Pernambuco (thus very far away from Minas Gerais and Bahia, over 800 km to the north) in elevation ~850 m, dry & cool environment, where the populations of Syagrus coronata and Syagrus cearensis (once thought to be S. oleracea) are naturally found.

The main characteristic of this interesting hybrid is the perfectly smooth trunk to 9 m tall, big fleshy round fruits ~3 cm diameter and difficult germination, although it is definetly not a sterile palm...

Eric's picture shows a nice Syagrus but it doesn't look like the real S. x costae, from the pictures I've seen, especially at Lorenzi's book. The fronds in this hybrid species don't seem to be so long...2 meters maximum...

My seedlings here are all awfully slow growers...let me see where I forgot them in the shadehouse...

[edbrown_III]

Hi Tala and friends,

Syagrus x costae was identified in habitat and described a long time ago by Prof. Glassman (Illinois) and named after my friend Prof. Medeiros Costa from Recife, who found the palm in habitat during their many palm search tours around NE Brazil.

The natural occuring hybrid was located in the small town of Brejão, State of Pernambuco (thus very far away from Minas Gerais and Bahia, over 800 km to the north) in elevation ~850 m, dry & cool environment, where the populations of Syagrus coronata and Syagrus cearensis (once thought to be S. oleracea) are naturally found.

The main characteristic of this interesting hybrid is the perfectly smooth trunk to 9 m tall, big fleshy round fruits ~3 cm diameter and difficult germination, although it is definetly not a sterile palm...

Eric's picture shows a nice Syagrus but it doesn't look like the real S. x costae, from the pictures I've seen, especially at Lorenzi's book. The fronds in this hybrid species don't seem to be so long...2 meters maximum...

My seedlings here are all awfully slow growers...let me see where I forgot them in the shadehouse...

Gileno,

Theres many Syagrus hybrids in South FLorida that came out of Fairchild Montgomery and other places. No telling what the lineage is-- I have both Glassmans publication on it and Lorenzis Palmeras -- if any one wishes copies-- Lorenzi's book is one of the best to identify species --- it has the tree, the flower and scaled photographs of seeds-- you can really identify palms with it.

Gileno, I lost your address, PM it and i will send some chinese cycas seeds.

Best regards,

Ed

[Tala]

I like Eric's pic better than mine, not so much junk in there (I was supposed to be cleaning out the garage...) - that shows the droopy leaflets. I think it gives it a very tropical appearance, it sort of reminds of the way some Euterpe and Oenocarpus look. Yeah its a stretch but its all we've got this far north...

Gileno thanks for the helpful info. Do you have any habitat pics of cearensis? Is this the only place it grows? Thats one Sy I don't know much about. The few sdlgs I have grown are very slow as well. But yes it does reproduce on it's own.

[Mark Heath]

Hello Dave, (Tala)

Here is a pic of the Syagrus hybrid that you sold to me at the UCF sale years ago. I wanted to show everyone a pic of your palms offspring! Oh, and yes, i also wanted to tarnish your status as a "Hybrid Hater"!!!!!

[Tala]

ha, I guess past evidence convicts me ... the palm looks great who knows what kind of monster you will concoct with it once it flowers, which shouldn't be long if it hasn't already. Mine sets erratically at best. Sometimes there are 50 seeds on one, sometimes a handful to none. And hardly any ever sprouted but again I didn't put much effort into it. Sometimes they germinate below the palm, I have a couple there now.