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So you'll have 8 leaves making food for that caudex! Plus about an inch of caudex spread and thickening for starch storage! Did you plant it this low, or did the root contract to this level? Cupidus does that contraction maneuver and you end up with ripples on the tap root from it trying to keep the caudex at ground level or under.

That second plant is special even among turnerii plants. Has it coned? Is it in Florida or Mexico?

The tree in my home town of Grafton even sets seeds that are viable from a single tree. Don’t underestimate the joannis, even possibly minus 2 temps have been recorded now and then. Where there is white frost patches in low lying areas. And I do remember the morning of the black frost that gave the town a flogging of col, killing the local sugar cane fields. The palm lived.

Welp i was pulling weeds with Sancho (he really does help, he eats this wild mint/clover stuff) and right before i absolutely faceplanted in the yard, I noticed this lil guy! Not only that, but look at the size of this new leaf. Uhh house for scale. Ok that's misleading, but still.

I just picked up 2 more

If you could send them across that little babbling brook known as the Atlantic then I'd love to buy some. I bought a few of these from RPS several years ago but they'd been shelled, which seems to make them a lot more sensitive in transit, and I had no luck with them.

Do you still have any left?

How many do you want?

They're probably about 3-5 degrees more sensitive to cold than arecina. So definitely a collectors palm around here. That said, pending an unusual freeze, they do pretty well. Definitely not like trying to grow Carpoxylon or Cocos.

Valle Hermoso, Tamaulipas.

I lived there for some time, and people try them for a few years until they fail usually. There was a house outside of town that had three that were taller that made it for some time until they died sometime about 20 years ago.

@Austinpalm In Matamoros used as ornamental possibly https://maps.app.goo.gl/DMHnXReudQZtbFHL7?g_st=ac

There is a small population of Acrocomia mexicana in Weslaco Texas. The mother palm was moved elsewhere (didn't die) but the seeds sprouted long after and there are juvenile palms in the area. @richtrav was the one who showed me this population. Mother palm before it was removed (2000's) Descendants

I was in downtown Clovis, New Mexico today, scouting out places a potential palm tree could be (as one does), and stumbled across a Mexican Fan Palm! Keep in mind Clovis is Zone 7A for hardiness, home to an extremely dry climate and frigid winters.

Thanks for the response and pix. When I look at various sources, this species is shown as being native as far north as Adama along the coast and possibly as far north as La Florida inland. As you and I have both seen, this palm is capable of surviving much further north than either of those locations. Do you have any knowledge or experience of what you perceive as natural/native populations of this palm occurring in more northern locations in northeast Mexico?

I wonder why these are not more common in places like California and the mild parts of Europe. Our lowest temperature here is around 48 to 52. So no chance of testing its hardiness, but it does not seem to need a lot of heat.

I'll continue to monitor the growth for now. I'll definitely fertilize👍. And thanks for sharing the YouTube link.

Here is a young Encephalartos equatorialis that is starting to push out bigger flushes.

Thank you for your response . I'll let it grow for now and see how the fronds develop as the summer progresses. I also have a needle palm that's been in the ground even longer. It had less protection than the Sabal minor and was hit hard, too, with about 90% of the fronds lost, but it's also coming back. A few of the offsets died, but new ones are coming in.

This is so true. I have had my doubts about the identity of more then a few cycads then all the sudden they start to show their true characteristics and it becomes obvious what they are.

Yeah, they're hardy. There are other 2 in my town that I have found. One of them is pre 2011 and both survived 2021 unbothered, even fruited and grew very very fast after the freeze, faster than Syagrus romanzoffiana. This is my other one, same age as the one in the backyard, in the sidewalk. Here is one of the 2 adult ones in my town: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Bfj6xX2Q8kqyLyk19 The other one (Pre 2011): https://maps.app.goo.gl/ro9zfzhK7HfUvwLTA?g_st=ac

Here are most of the palms I own

They look great Richard. Winter for you still gets to at least 20C with sun during the day doesn’t it. The rebounding day temps really make a difference coming from low single digit minimums.

Looking great Richard. I tried some in shade and they just slowly declined in my climate. Not enough summer heat. However I saved most of the shade declining ones by digging them up and putting them into full sun in a perpetually wet spot with white clay below the surface and they just took off. I’ve got I think 15 planted in the same spot at varying stages of growth but when they all start to trunk it’s going to be great to walk underneath the canopy they will create. In winter, like right now, the area is literally oozing water from the ground. Mine have started growing pneumatophore roots like a Raphia or a mangrove. I’m hoping they will set seed one day, however they are not that popular any more and most WA soils are crappy gutless sand which they just hate unless you constantly feed them with fertiliser and leave the hose running on them 24/7. They are tough. In the middle of January (summer here) I took some 30cm high seedlings out of the shadehouse and whacked them in the ground in full sun but in heavy wet soil and a week later we had a 42.5C day and I expected them to just be fried. No, they didn’t even fade. As long as they are wet they will take tons of sun, and they can take light frost in winter. Heavier frost creates damage but they are so quick to regrow it doesn’t cause lasting harm. One of my tallest trunking ones took a direct hit from a dead pine tree I cut down that fell the wrong way. I was devastated and thought the growing point may have been shattered. No. Some leaves were damaged but two years later you wouldn’t even know. I love them. They are a real feature in the garden. A totally under rated and under utilised palm in my area.

Acrocomia are hardy palms and grow fairly fast here in South Texas. I am aware of one or two individuals that survived palmageddon up in Corpus Christi 5 or so years back. I believe they survived an ultimate low of 17f and at least 2 consecutive days where the temperature never rose above 32f. Very tough. I am a little surprised that they are not more common around here. Yours look to be taking off, good luck with them.