can Bismarckia hybridize ???

[Eric in Orlando]

Here at Leu Gardens we have a Bismarckia nobilis close to 30ft tall. It started flowering about 10 years ago and it is a female. Up until now it has produced sterile seed since no male plants are near. But this week I noticed about a dozen seedlings underneath. I scouted the nearby neighborhood and found no other mature Bismarckia old enough to flower.

What could pollinate our palm? The only palm semi-related near it that is flowering is a Hyphaene coriacea and it is male. There is also a Copernicia alba, C. prunifera and C. glaucescens also near that are flowering but I don't think Bismarckia and Copernicia are closely related enough to cross.

Has anyone seen a Bismarckia hybrid ?

[Zeeth]

I always hear that bees can fly 3 miles to deliver pollen. My guess is that somewhere within 3 miles of you is a male Bismarckia, especially considering how common they've become.

If it's not that, Hyphanae is genetically similar, so the only way to be 100% positive that it's not that is to collect seeds and grow them for a while to see what comes up!

[trioderob]

if it is a hybrid - can I have a few seeds ?

[Mauna Kea Cloudforest]

I keep bees, you need to scour at least a one mile radius, probably 2 to be safe.

[Eric in Orlando]

There are several mature flowering specimens across the lake in an adjacen t neighborhood, 1-1.5 miles away and others with 2 miles.

[Eric in Orlando]

if it is a hybrid - can I have a few seeds ?

It is holding green ones now. I will keep watch for when they drop. I'm going to try to dig the seedlings gently and pot up to watch for hybridization. The flowering Hyphaene is only about 50ft away.

[Kris]

Nice.i want to ask a question about crossing green bismarkia with silver form.what will it result in ?

[Eric in Orlando]

Kris, I think you get a mix. From what I hear green ones produce almost all green ones. Silver blue ones produce mostly silver blue but some green ones too. The ones that will be the most intensely silvery blue will have purple/maroon coloring as seedlings.

[Mandrew968]

if it is a hybrid - can I have a few seeds ?

It is holding green ones now. I will keep watch for when they drop. I'm going to try to dig the seedlings gently and pot up to watch for hybridization. The flowering Hyphaene is only about 50ft away.

Good luck digging those seedlings! I doubt you will be able to and make them live. I also say it's not a hybrid--if it were possible, I think we would have seen it by now...

[Eric in Orlando]

I don't think they are either, the seedlings look like Biz seedlings.But on the remote change that they might be I'm going to try them.

[Kris]

Thanks Eric.

[abdalav]

I'm curious about these Bismarckia seedlings. Were they pure or hybrids after all?

[Beespalms]

From my experience, when it comes to hybridization the only way to know if a cross is possible is it to try and create the hybrid by hand.  when the palm society was in Thailand at Nong Noch garden, we toured a few gardens that had seemingly impossible hybrids.  For instance they had a few dozen Lodoicea x Borasus growing on a hill.  The owner explained the gardens first flowering Lodoicea was a female.  They could not locate any male Lodoicea pollen so they tried Borassus as a experiement and it worked.  

[hbernstein]

8 hours ago, Beespalms said:

From my experience, when it comes to hybridization the only way to know if a cross is possible is it to try and create the hybrid by hand.  when the palm society was in Thailand at Nong Noch garden, we toured a few gardens that had seemingly impossible hybrids.  For instance they had a few dozen Lodoicea x Borasus growing on a hill.  The owner explained the gardens first flowering Lodoicea was a female.  They could not locate any male Lodoicea pollen so they tried Borassus as a experiement and it worked.  

If accurate, that's pretty amazing. I'd like to see what the hybrids looked like.

[kinzyjr]

There was a thread on the topic of Bismarckia crosses a while back, but nothing concrete... just theoretical: https://www.palmtalk.org/forum/index.php?/topic/42735-what-are-all-the-different-bismarkia-cross-x-s/

I was always curious if a Bismarckia could cross with Medemia.

[Eric in Orlando]

No hybrids, I let some seedlings grow for awhile, all Bismarckia.