Parajubaea

[Paco]

Hi guys,

this palm was purchased 3 weeks ago in a nursery in Spain. This nursery is huge and it will have in stock at the moment easily a few thousand Parajubaeas in many sizes, and container formats. They "only" have Parajubaea torallyi, but we spotted a group of maybe 100 Parajubaeas that seemed very different. While at the same size that the "standard" P.torallyi nearby, this whole group still had the leafs un-split. I thought that it could be a genetic variation of the same species or maybe it could be P. cocoides?? I 'll like to know your thoughts on this one.

pictures courtesy of Marcelo

Regards

Paco

[Perito]

Paco, I'm guessing those are P.cocoides. I've only grown one, but it held its strap leaves much longer than the torallyis and sunkhas I'm growing. Perito

[PalmGuyWC]

Paco,

It seems most of us have Parajubaeas about the same size, and they all look very similar at that size. It's really hard to tell them apart at that size. The only Parajubaeas I've seen that are mature is P. cocoides. It would be really great to see all 4 of the mature Parjubaeas growing side by side for compairson. It seems from my observations that P. sunkha has more narrow leaf blades than the others and it grows more upright than the others. If anyone has any methods of identification when they are small let us know.

I've heard that P. microcarpa has a smaller trunk than P. TVT, but they look almost identical when small. P. TVT is supposed to be the giant of the group.

Dick

[iamjv]

Paco, it's a good looking palm which ever one it is...

Perry, your para is looking really healthy!

Jv

[AJQ]

I have three Para tor tors, they all look similar, the first is 4 years in the ground and has fully pinate fronds, this produced pinate fronds the first year I planted it. The second and third are twice the size and only just producing pinate fronds now and are still in the pots. Nothing to tell them apart but the size? I guess they are all Tor tors.

My Microcarpa has finer leaflets on the fronds and is slower than the tor tors, this is also planted out.

Regards Andy.

[Perito]

Thanks Jv- Here's what it looked like in January of this year.

Hi Dick- Here is another photo of it as a youngster (P.cocoides). The torallyis that I've grown don't seem to go through this leaf form, the leaves stay thinner and very much bifid. Then it seems as soon as they go pinnate the leaflets start bending 2 or 3 inches from the petiole where as my cocoides still is not doing that.

[Perito]

Here is a Parajubaea torallyi with its typical strap leaves-

Here is a photo of one that has gone pinnate with the 'droop' in the leaflets- Perry

[Darold Petty]

Let's not make things more complicated than need be. This is a large commercial nursery in Spain which has only P. torallyi. This species is restricted to Bolivia, and thus I would assume the seeds came from there. P. cocoides is found only in Equador, with one small population recently discovered in northern Peru. It's most unlikely that these seeds would get mixed up. I believe this is just normal variation among individual plants.

[AJQ]

So where did my microcarpa come from then?

As I acquired it from a UK source.

Regards Andy.