By
PalmatierMeg
About 10 years ago when I was trying to replant my back yard jungle, I bought a 3g Burretiokentia hapala to plant in it. I soon realized my FL sun was way too brutal for the little guy, so I set up a makeshift shade structure for the rest of the season. I kept a number of juvenile A. cunninghamianas as backup plantings and before the next summer I strategically placed several of them around my little Burretiokentia. Fast forward 5-6 years and what I believed to be my slow growing hapala croaked. By then I accepted palm deaths as part of palm growing so I shrugged and figured the picabeens would carry on. I took a really close look at one of them and realized it looked different. Its fronds were a dark green, not picabeen lime green and all the rachises had a "twist" in the middle that tipped each frond almost perpendicular to the ground. Piccabeen fronds lie almost flat and perpendicular to the ground. This palm's crownshaft was a deep emerald green and its skinny trunk brownish-green with prominent leaf scars. Picabeen trunks are gray.
"Wait!" I said to myself. "Did my B. hapala actually survive and grow lurking among the picabeens?" Then I studied the twisted fronds and wondered, "Is this palm actually a Ravenea?"
Because years ago I planted several species of Ravenea in the jungle, including R. hildebrandtii - but no majesties. As time passed, all of them bit the dust. Or so I thought.
Can anyone tell me what this very handsome palm is?
Mystery Palm