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Talipot Palm Begins to Flower at Pinecrest Gardens


Moose

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Just received this e-mail from the South Florida Palm Society,
Talipot Palm Begins to Flower at Pinecrest Gardens
The Talipot Palm, Corypha umbraculifera, is a giant of the plant king-
dom. It produces not only the largest leaf of any plant 15-20 ft. in diam-
eter but also the largest inflorescence. That fabulous flower stalk sits
atop the palm like a tropical Christmas tree, reaching 18-25 ft. high.
It has been many years since a Talipot Palm bloomed in a public location
in Miami-Dade County, but you can see one developing now at Pinecrest
Gardens. The palm was planted at the former Parrot Jungle in 1965 by its
horticulturist, Nat DeLeon, who from 1964 to 1966 served as the fifth
president of the International Palm Society.
The Talipot occupies a specialized niche among palms: It flowers only
once before dying. In botanical parlance, it is said to be hapaxanthic. With
pollination, flowers are replaced by fruit; a plant that produces fruit just
once before expiring is referred to as monocarpic. A Talipot Palm lives
roughly 30-80 years before starting its transition from vegetative to repro-
ductive growth. In advance of flowering, the plant produces progressively
smaller leaves until suddenly a singular inflorescence pops out above the
crown. Over the next 12-18 months, it develops, flowers profusely and,
with successful pollination, produces about a ton of golf ball-sized fruit.
Folklore has it that the huge inflorescence holds a million flowers, but that
number is exaggerated by a few hundred thousand. That still leaves a lot of
flowers with the potential to produce fruit.
Corypha has caused excitement even in the business world. When a
Talipot Palm at Fairchild Tropical Garden flowered in 1984, The Wall
Street Journal sent a reporter and sketch artist to the Garden to cover it. The
resulting article, entitled "The Talipot: Bloom and Doom," was perhaps an
allegory for bull markets. Unfortunately, pollination was poor, and just a
few hundred fruits matured.
A much more successful Talipot flowering occurred about three years
later on New Providence Island in The Bahamas. The site was The Retreat,
home since 1925 of Arthur and Margaret "Wumpsie" Langlois, dedicated
palm collectors. By 1987 both of them had died, but their property had long
since been transferred to the Bahamas National Trust, an organization cre-
ated in 1959 to conserve natural resources in The Bahamas. (The 11-acre
Retreat is now not only a national park, but also the Trust's administrative
headquarters and educational center.)
Supporters of The Retreat proposed that the Talipot fruit be sold to raise
funds to help defray costs of maintaining The Retreat. Stanley Kiem, a
board member of the South Florida Palm Society and a longtime friend of
the Langloises, suggested that the fruit could be mailed to buyers more eas-
ily from the U.S. than from The Bahamas. The parties agreed that the SFPS
would take on sales and shipping duties, then remit revenues to The Retreat.
That decision led to a once-in-a-lifetime experience for at least one per-
son a desk clerk at the David William Hotel in Coral Gables. One of the
Langloises' old friends liked to come to Miami once in a while to shop. She
offered to bring the cleaned fruit on one of those visits. On arrival at the
David William, she phoned me to say that she would leave the seeds in a
suitcase at the front desk of the hotel while she went away for the day. She
asked that I bring a box to take the seeds, because she wanted the suitcase
back.
Late that afternoon, following work, I drove to the hotel and walked in
with a cardboard box. The only person in the small lobby was the elderly
desk clerk. When I mentioned the guest from Nassau, he produced the suit-
case and set it on his counter. I unzipped the suitcase, and what I saw was
thousands of seeds, stuffed into baggies and heavily dusted with fungicide.
What the desk clerk saw was DRUGS!!! As I lifted each baggie out of the
suitcase and placed it into the box, his eyes opened wider and wider. I did
not offer an explanation. Upon finishing, I thanked him and left with the box
of valuable cargo. I have always imagined that the clerk went home after
his shift and told his wife that he had just stumbled onto a huge international
cocaine smuggling operation.
The distribution of the Corypha seed around the U.S. was not as dramatic,
but it proved to be a very successful fundraiser for The Retreat. And surely a
good number of Talipot Palms made their way into the ground in the warmer
parts of the United States.
If you'd like to follow the progress of Pinecrest Gardens' Talipot Palm,
drop by any day. Winter hours are 10:00 - 5:00 Monday through Friday and
9:00 - 5:00 Saturday and Sunday. Admission is $5; $3, for visitors 65 and
above.
Leonard Goldstein

Coral Gables, FL 8 miles North of Fairchild USDA Zone 10B

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Moose!

Pictures?

Let's keep our forum fun and friendly.

Any data in this post is provided 'as is' and in no event shall I be liable for any damages, including, without limitation, damages resulting from accuracy or lack thereof, insult, or lost profits or revenue, claims by third parties or for other similar costs, or any special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of my opinion or the use of this data. The accuracy or reliability of the data is not guaranteed or warranted in any way and I disclaim liability of any kind whatsoever, including, without limitation, liability for quality, performance, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose arising out of the use, or inability to use my data. Other terms may apply.

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Moose!

Pictures?

Why me ? Why do I gotta make the trek ? The garden is closer to Andrew ... :hmm:

Coral Gables, FL 8 miles North of Fairchild USDA Zone 10B

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Lol!! That was pretty funny. But a great story and hope many seeds are produced and distributed.

Searle Brothers Nursery Inc.

and The Rainforest Collection.

Southwest Ranches,Fl.

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found the place but not the tree

post-1122-0-71520800-1422636386_thumb.jp

The weight of lies will bring you down / And follow you to every town / Cause nothin happens here

That doesn't happen there / So when you run make sure you run / To something and not away from

Cause lies don't need an aero plane / To chase you anywhere

--Avett Bros

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  • 11 months later...

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