Attaleas x 3

[PalmatierMeg]

I've been having an e-conversation with @JubaeaMan138 about Attaleas - I have three species - and he asked me to post photos of them. All of these palms will eventually trunk but I may not live to see that. They are surprisingly slow growing even during my long, sweltering summers. They are fairly cold sensitive but as long as their growing points remain below ground they should suffer only cosmetic damage during winter. I wish this genus was more popular with palm lovers but understand most species get quite large for small yards.

1) Attalea butyracea - I have 2 of these and this is the smaller/younger one on my Garden Lot. The petioles have a speckled "mealybug" look

Attalea cohune - I was given this by a palm lover who had no room to plant it

Attalea phalerata

[Alberto]

Nice palms

. Probably after forming a trunk they will grow faster

[Ricigliano]

I'm definitely not a expert on Attalea. Your 2 first palms look identical to my Attalea speciosa. Attalea speciosa almost always germinate multiple plants from the same seed. I got 4 seedlings from 1 seed before. My butyracea has green petiols and are a little wider plant when young. I hope this helps 

[PalmatierMeg]

1 hour ago, Ricigliano said:

I'm definitely not a expert on Attalea. Your 2 first palms look identical to my Attalea speciosa. Attalea speciosa almost always germinate multiple plants from the same seed. I got 4 seedlings from 1 seed before. My butyracea has green petiols and are a little wider plant when young. I hope this helps 

Anything is possible. I'm no Attalea expert either. The first palm grew from seeds I collected from a palm park in Ft. Myers. The mother was plaqued "Attalea butyracea" and was huge. But I found hinky IDs among other palms there. The seeds were the size of my fist. The A. cohune was given to me by a local palm seller so I have only his word as to ID.

[redant]

I have 3 as well, they are super slow but that's fine as they are monsters. this ones maybe 7 or so years in the ground from a 3 gal pot, no trunk.

[JubaeaMan138]

Beautiful attaleas!! So speciosa has the mealy markings?

[Palm Tree Jim]

2 hours ago, redant said:

I have 3 as well, they are super slow but that's fine as they are monsters. this ones maybe 7 or so years in the ground from a 3 gal pot, no trunk.

Awesome!

[Palm Tree Jim]

There is a garden in Southern California that has a cohune that has done great.

Maybe Jason can chime in here and share a picture.

[jimmyt]

Those are some great looking palms people.    Great growing

[Hilo Jason]

14 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

There is a garden in Southern California that has a cohune that has done great.

Maybe Jason can chime in here and share a picture.

I have Attalea Geraensis in my Fallbrook garden. Or at least that's what the tag said when I bought it. 

I was in California 2 weeks ago and visited that garden (we are renting that house out). I couldn't get a good pic of the attalea due to it being too crammed with other palms and the sun being in the worst spot. But here's the base. I would guess the leaves are 20' tall now!

[Palm Tree Jim]

9 hours ago, Hilo Jason said:

I have Attalea Geraensis in my Fallbrook garden. Or at least that's what the tag said when I bought it. 

I was in California 2 weeks ago and visited that garden (we are renting that house out). I couldn't get a good pic of the attalea due to it being too crammed with other palms and the sun being in the worst spot. But here's the base. I would guess the leaves are 20' tall now!

Sorry about the wrong ID.

[mike in kurtistown]

This topic stimulated my interest to the point that I went out and took some pictures this morning of the five species that I am growing on my 8 acres in east Hawaii Island, The 5-gal orange bucket provides scale.

First is Attalea cohune. Seed picked up in Belize, no ID problems. Note the long, straight regularly arranged leaves up to the end of the leaf. Pl;anted from 2-gal pot in July 2012.

Here is Attalea phalerata. Planted from 2-gal pot in May 2013. Leaves plumose, leaflets curved and drooping.

Here is Attalea butyracea, planted from 2-gal pot in June 2015. Leaflets still regularly arranged at this stage, with bifid terminal leaflets. Id from signage in garden in Kauai.

Here is Attalea maripa. Seeds collected in Trinidad by a palm collector who divides his time between Brevard County and Puerto Rico. Seeds took years to germinate, one took five years. Plumose leaves. Planted from 2-gal pots in March 2015. 

Finally, this was called Attalea guacayule by the late Al Bredeson who gave me seeds from trees in his garden in Kona, west Hawaii. From 2-gal pots in February 2016. Looks a lot like cohune

From the pictures in previous posts, the cohune looks right, but not sure about the others.

 

[realarch]

Some nice photos folks!

Mike, you need a herd of goats!

Here are a few more photos.

First three are A. phalerata, exceedingly fast and the last is A cohune, which is painfully slow.

Tim

[Hilo Jason]

13 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

Sorry about the wrong ID.

No worries. I'm not sure the ID that it came with is even right. Doesn't really look like the pics on palmpedia of Geraensis. 

[Lizsouthfl]

Can anyone identify this attalea? I’m new to south Florida but every time I see one.... I’m struck. Also, if anyone is selling attalea species please let me know

[Merlyn]

17 hours ago, Lizsouthfl said:

Can anyone identify this attalea? I’m new to south Florida but every time I see one.... I’m struck. Also, if anyone is selling attalea species please let me know

The leaves are mostly flat plane and not plumose like Attalea Phalerata.  But they aren't super-flat like Cohune, but probably close enough.  It looks an awful lot like this Attalea Cohune at Fairchild Botanical Gardens:

Can you tell us where your photo was taken?

[Lizsouthfl]

This particular attalea was at Consitution park at the Deerfield arboretum  

[WaianaeCrider]

My "Attalea phalerata" was given to me by a worker in a botanical garden in Honolulu.  There were two next to each other and there was signage identifying the palms.  This has been in the ground for a bit over 20 years.  Last time I posted it's picture there were comments that it is not Attalea phalerata.  Can't remember what people thought it was.  The seed was big, like the size of two fists held together.  It has formed seeds here but not have gotten large I think there is some kind of bug damage.  This picture is from 2009 and back then I was 6' tall.  My body at 78 has shrunk a bit in height to 5' 10" now.  LOL  There is a mess of HEAVY fronds well over 15-20' long laying around it now so a good "today" picture is difficult.

Seed pictures taken back in 2020

 

[realarch]

Steve, no small palm….cmon, you haven’t shrunk THAT much.  Pretty sure that isn’t A. phalerata and off the top of my head I’d say A. cohune. 

Tim

[WaianaeCrider]

38 minutes ago, realarch said:

Steve, no small palm….cmon, you haven’t shrunk THAT much.  Pretty sure that isn’t A. phalerata and off the top of my head I’d say A. cohune. 

Tim

Yea I think that's what was figured the last time.  Just went in to file of photos and changed the name.  To bad I made one of those "sexy" signs years ago.

[WaianaeCrider]

4 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

Yea I think that's what was figured the last time.  Just went in to file of photos and changed the name.  To bad I made one of those "sexy" signs years ago.

 

[Fusca]

Here are two trunking Attalea cohunes in Goiania, Brasil.  Imagine planting a double in your yard like these!  Even the fruits are huge!

 

[Fusca]

And another Attalea phalerata in the same city as the A. cohune.

 

[WaianaeCrider]

Wonder if the planter had any idea what they would grow up to be.  LOL

[Fusca]

12 minutes ago, WaianaeCrider said:

Wonder if the planter had any idea what they would grow up to be.  LOL

I think he had some idea since he didn't use up space on his lot!  Lucky for him those overhead wires are on the other side of the street.  I think he had to modify his wall configuration to accommodate the palms.

[Merlyn]

14 hours ago, Fusca said:

Here are two trunking Attalea cohunes in Goiania, Brasil.  Imagine planting a double in your yard like these!  Even the fruits are huge!

 

I have a pair of young Cohunes, one is in a 5g pot and the other is planted in the backyard.  The planted one took about 50% leaf burn at 28F with frost, so I may move it up to the front yard.  It's ~3F warmer in the front...maybe I'll plant the two together!  That would be truly epic! (...in about 20 years)

[DG2020]

20 years goes by faster than you’d think! 

[realarch]

Boy, that is a serious bunch of seed. Can’t imagine how much it weighs.

Tim

[DG2020]

This was the first significant seed set from this Attalea butyracea. At 5’ long  I’m sure it’s heavy but I was wondering how many jelly beans were in the jar? 

[Fusca]

8 hours ago, realarch said:

Boy, that is a serious bunch of seed. Can’t imagine how much it weighs.

Tim

Those cohune seeds were about 1 lb each!  But not nearly as many as that butyracea!  Impressive weights both.