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Biggest Foxtail ?


greysrigging

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Here's a quarantine task.... put up a pic of your ( or anyone's ) largest Foxtail. The species really has only been on the market for about 30 to 35 years, so there should be some monsters out there in captivity. Here's my big 'un... cant remember when planted.... at least 25 years ago, maybe more. Has developed a trunk similar in size and shape to a Royal.
91488763_3401926449824100_3726526304200163328_n.jpg.655e3e81f5a290050705034a50046f80.jpg  91973541_3401926499824095_4889599264658817024_n.jpg.49686b6f04ae5b5610e902de71ab5ea0.jpg

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Good grief Doug! A yard monster for sure.

Tim

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Tim

Hilo, Hawaii

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Stumbled across this one in Galveston a few days ago. It looks like it was a double but the freeze of 2018 made it a single. If you look close you’ll see it has fruit. 

E0D4D71F-A15D-44AB-8638-2E746B22B976.png

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And here are mine. Not nearly as impressive, but the larger two have grown considerably since I bought them 2 years ago. 

FC413F59-D12F-4FCF-8F5F-EB5A398855F6.jpeg

Edited by Jeff985
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7 hours ago, Jeff985 said:

And here are mine. Not nearly as impressive, but the larger two have grown considerably since I bought them 2 years ago. 

FC413F59-D12F-4FCF-8F5F-EB5A398855F6.jpeg

Healthy considering you've just come out of the winter months.....

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20 minutes ago, greysrigging said:

Healthy considering you've just come out of the winter months.....

Yeah. The coldest it got at my place this winter was 33. 

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I do not have a pic of the best I’ve seen by me, but here 50 miles inland I have found that while not super common nor rare, they grow bigger and more robust in shade. I have one in my courtyard that was a skinny 15 gal planted last spring and has grown very slowly. It gets full direct sun from 12-4pm. The best looking one I have seen is planted between large King Palms and white bird of paradise. It is about 16-18 feet tall and thick like a royal palm. Add in the beautiful colors of its trunk and crown shaft and it’s a showstopper. So I planted a little 5 gallon this week in hopes it will do better.

Edited by James B
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This is mine, I would guess it to be around 30 plus years old, one of the first palms planted. The roof line is close to 30 feet and its growing up through a deck on the side of the house.

  

IMAG0088.jpg

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Port Macquarie NSW Australia

Warm temperate to subtropical

Record low of -2C at airport 2006

Pushing the limit of palm survivabilities

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Are the oldest "domesticated" specimens in Australia?  That would be understandable.

Andrei W. Konradi, Burlingame, California.  Vicarious appreciator of palms in other people's gardens and in habitat

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Here's my biggest foxtail (in Arizona) Haven't seen one bigger in this state.Grown from a 5 gallon seedling.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

15860198509964293236798632732079.jpg

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Mesa, Arizona

 

Temps between 29F and 115F each year

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43 minutes ago, aztropic said:

Here's my biggest foxtail (in Arizona) Haven't seen one bigger in this state.Grown from a 5 gallon seedling.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

15860198509964293236798632732079.jpg

How does it handle your yearly weather?
 

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Well,its been planted there about 20 years so THAT one handles Phoenix just fine.Always has some sunburned or slightly frozen fronds but like the energizer bunny,it just keeps going and going.I've had a few others over the years that haven't been so lucky.Freezes or even our extreme heat, have eventually taken them out.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

Mesa, Arizona

 

Temps between 29F and 115F each year

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An interesting read ( an old news article )
 

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Most famous tree still under a legal cloud


Without a doubt, Queensland's most famous tree is one Wodyetia Bifurcata - far more familiarly known as the Foxtail Palm.

It has been a quick rise to stardom for the palm, which was first discovered only in 1975 in its only natural habitat of a few square miles of the Cape Melville National Park in a relatively inaccessible area of Cape York.

The fame of the foxtail has very little to do with its horticultural qualities of being "a good clean palm with highly attractive foliage" and it has nothing to do with the palm being rare or endangered - it isn't. The foxtail palm is now best known as the basis of a smuggling racket which went on to generate an alleged political scandal.

But despite all the attention given to the palm by public servants, lawyers, politicians and police the legal status of thousands of foxtail palms on sale in nurseries and at weekend fleamarkets remains highly uncertain.

Scientists did not get around to officially describing the Foxtail until 1983. Some element of their description must have caught the fancy of an unknown nursery proprietor because soon afterwards the foxtail was highly prized, highly priced and on the open market.

Some of the relatively unregulated folk of Cape York promptly added foxtail palm seed collection to their other legal, barely legal and wholly illegal activities. Government authorities responded in the usual confused, desultory and totally ineffective manner and for the best part of a decade seed collectors and smugglers were mainly untroubled by official intervention or concern.

Indeed, while the Department of Environment and Heritage was beginning to realise it needed to actually do something other than mouth platitudes about the seed smugglers tearing up the national park with their four wheel drives, other government agencies were lining up as enthusiastic buyers of illegal palms.

Large scale foxtail palm purchasers in the early 1990s included the Southbank Corporation, the Cairns Port authority (11 palms at 2.5 metres, 11 at 3 metres and nine at 3.5 metres) and the Thursday Island TAFE College (74 in 200 mm pots).

In 1992, the police fauna squad descended on Sheldon Palms near Brisbane and seized 18,000 foxtail palms from proprietor David Cochran, only to give them back three months later.

With the pressure on to stop looking ridiculous, the department shifted operations to Cape Melville National Park. Very, very few were caught in the net, but one who was proved to be the brother of one of Premier's most senior staffers. In what was later found to be coincidence, official business had taken the alleged offender's brother and another senior staffer to the near vicinity, where they were able to render some assistance with the recovery of a confiscated vehicle.

With curious questions dangling everywhere - not least in State Parliament - a Criminal Justice Commission inquiry was established to get to the bottom of the matter or, on some accounts, to hose it down.

In a controversial and perhaps inadequate report into the coyly named "Cape Melville Incident", the CJC cleared the political staffers and senior departmental officers of any wrongdoing, gave a very light touch-up to the alleged smugglers and reserved most of its adverse findings for those trying to stamp out the smuggling.

Economics and botany may be about to accomplish what government could not and knock the bottom out of the smuggling trade. With the palm taking about eight years to reach sexual maturity there are now many thousands of trees planted outside the park seeding or about to seed. With each tree setting about 500 seed demand and supply look like coming into balance in the relatively near future.

According to Mr Donald Scott of the Queensland Nursery Industry Association (QNIA), even the foxtail palm at the entrance of the Florida Agricultural Department Research Station is about to set its first seed, meaning that the international window of opportunity is fast closing as well.

Both legal and illegal fortunes may still be made from the palm, but they are now much smaller fortunes. Three metre trees once worth up to $600 dollars each are now about $140, or only twice to three times as much as a perfectly legal and quite common Alexander palm of similar proportions.

Seed once wholly illegal and worth up to $5 domestically can now be gleaned from both legal and illegal sources and is now only about 70 cents in Australia and $1.40 in Florida, according to the QNIA.

However, a major grower who did not want to be named "because every time I open my mouth about this I get into trouble" said that legal seed cost about $1.40 a seed in Australia and would still be worth 50 cents a seed in 10 years time.

"We can probably get enough seed legally for the domestic market in two or three years," he said. "But the international market is huge - there is only one thing to do and that is lock up the park."

And is the foxtail palm on sale in the local nursery or flea market now a legal commodity? Well, it might be but is most probably not.

Mr Scott said the foxtail palm, which is hardly an endangered species, "now has pride of place on the restricted plant list - probably because of the political embarrassment".

This means that nurseries need a "commercial wildlife licence" and all plants sold must carry a tag certifying their legal origin, with tags obtainable for a 20 cent fee from the Department of Environment and Heritage. Not having a licence is potentially a $60,000 offence and selling an untagged plant can attract a maximum penalty of $720.

More than a year after proclamation, the law still has everyone confused. Mr Scott believed that seed collectors needed a "commercial harvesting licence" and that people collecting seed from underneath trees on the footpath could technically be liable for a huge fine.

Not so, said the department, which has prosecuted five people for foxtail palm related offences in the past two years. Commercial harvesting licences are not available for the foxtail palm and seed collection is permitted from trees growing outside Cape Melville National Park.

Most palms would seem to be being sold unadorned by any official tags. When asked whether he was affixing tags to his trees, the major grower - who doesn't have what he understood to be a "propagators licence" - responded only with "What do you think?"

"Probably not," was the hazarded guess. "You are probably right," he said.
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Here's a few pics of one of my Foxtails taken 5 years apart - April 2015 and today.

 

u049N5N.jpg

5mJW3em.jpg

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So how does everyone rate the growth rates of their Foxtails ? I rate as 'fast', but actually on the slowish side to get going. After 2 or 3 years they become a rocket. I have to qualify this observation, in recent years I have lavished my yard with far more 'dry season' irrigation than in the past. Many of my non native exotics seem have got themselves a new lease of life with the extra water and copious amounts of Dynamic Lifter and Rooster Booster during the rainy season.
Might be a bit of an old wives tale, but the distance between the growth rings on the trunk indicates the growth rates. A couple of my Foxtails started life in full shade or as near as.... now reaching above the line of the elevated house thus in full sun, and loving it !
These young Foxtails growing in full competition with assorted other plants in a rain forest aspect.
92281532_2824743404313740_6213559196059697152_n.jpg.8710e9b9aff6d2fc6ca6d7ecbae1b6e0.jpg  91854895_846788955789020_3258444541895639040_n.jpg.f23a608cfe28eb4599361b76ac2fbd59.jpg 

91403237_224454698667493_326093545112862720_n.jpg.05e0a70cf4278516904411735e901bf3.jpg
 

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And looks like a good crop of seeds coming along nicely on my big one ( oh...if only it was 1982.....$5 a seed.... sigh ! ) :evil:

 

91912892_519982755557584_891254474683711488_n.jpg

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what would the caliper on this foxtail be?  It looks bigger than any from around here where the rarely never exceed 10" caliper.  By comparison, royals grow much thicker here.  18" is typical for adult royals in public plantings, one of mine is ~28" caliper, the other(a cokebottle shape) is 24" but thickens to 30' plus at 15' above the ground.  There are some older foxtails here that have been well grown, nice color.and full crowns of 8-10 leaves.  But many have been planted up against houses in low drainage clay and suffer notable micronutrient deficiencies, they just look bad.  Rouyals do ok in that clay.  The clueless palm owner who doesnt recognize that palm fertilizer is different than that used for other trees does much better with a royal here.

Formerly in Gilbert AZ, zone 9a/9b. Now in Palmetto, Florida Zone 9b/10a??

 

Tom Blank

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These are a few of my favorites near downtown.  They are large, fruiting, and have survived all of the cold snaps since the early 2000's.  Our lowest temperature during the last 20 years was 26F, observed several times, and they had companions that did not make the cut during 2010.  Certainly a tried and true gene pool to draw from locally.

20200405_101130_Wodyetia_bifurcata_side.jpg

20200405_101204_Wodyetia_bifurcata_front.jpg

The seeds from these are verified as fertile and tend to sprout even after significant time has passed (some sprouted even after a year passed).  Below is ~1/2 a seed batch from the palms along with a seedling that I started from the batch.

20200405_105100_Wodyetia_bifurcata_seeds.jpg

20200405_105224_Wodyetia_bifurcata_seedling.jpg

There are some larger Foxtails on private property near Lake Hollingsworth, not quite as old as these in most cases, but large and fruit bearing none the less.

Foxtails at Lake Hollingsworth - Link 1

Foxtails at Lake Hollingsworth - Link 2

Foxtails at Lake Hollingsworth - Link 3 - Winter 2010 Damage

Foxtails at Lake Hollingsworth - Link 4: The palms in Link 3 can be seen peeking above the house

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Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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17 hours ago, greysrigging said:

So how does everyone rate the growth rates of their Foxtails ? I rate as 'fast', but actually on the slowish side to get going.

I only have experience with seedlings but feel the same way.  Normanbya normanbyi are similar palms in my eyes - do you find them similar in growth rate?  I am curious about their cold hardiness also but I'm guess that the Wodyetia is slightly more hardy?

Jon Sunder

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20 hours ago, greysrigging said:

So how does everyone rate the growth rates of their Foxtails ? I rate as 'fast', but actually on the slowish side to get going. After 2 or 3 years they become a rocket. I have to qualify this observation, in recent years I have lavished my yard with far more 'dry season' irrigation than in the past. Many of my non native exotics seem have got themselves a new lease of life with the extra water and copious amounts of Dynamic Lifter and Rooster Booster during the rainy season.
Might be a bit of an old wives tale, but the distance between the growth rings on the trunk indicates the growth rates. A couple of my Foxtails started life in full shade or as near as.... now reaching above the line of the elevated house thus in full sun, and loving it !
These young Foxtails growing in full competition with assorted other plants in a rain forest aspect.
92281532_2824743404313740_6213559196059697152_n.jpg.8710e9b9aff6d2fc6ca6d7ecbae1b6e0.jpg  91854895_846788955789020_3258444541895639040_n.jpg.f23a608cfe28eb4599361b76ac2fbd59.jpg 

91403237_224454698667493_326093545112862720_n.jpg.05e0a70cf4278516904411735e901bf3.jpg
 

I have one in ground for a year that has been a snail. Was bought as a 15 gal. Only put out 2 new fronds last growing season. Looking to see if it speeds up. Jury is still out on the 5 gal I planted last week under canopy.

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1 hour ago, James B said:

I have one in ground for a year that has been a snail. Was bought as a 15 gal. Only put out 2 new fronds last growing season. Looking to see if it speeds up. Jury is still out on the 5 gal I planted last week under canopy.

I've read that the trick to beautiful foxtails is to feed 'em constantly...

15861401622825523882587096207284.jpg

Edited by GottmitAlex
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5 year high 42.2C/108F (07/06/2018)--5 year low 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)--Lowest recent/current winter: 4.6C/40.3F (1/19/2023)

 

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1 hour ago, GottmitAlex said:

I've read that the trick to beautiful foxtails is to feed 'em constantly...

Probably depends on the particular conditions. There's nice ones here I know don't get any special treatment.  This one gets nothing.

DSCN4337_zpsqasibv61.jpg

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Here's a few more ....Mackay, Nth Qld, Australia.     I must admit, there is some very impressive Foxtail palms in Nth Qld 

 

m3edoKb.jpg

sS6BWc0.jpg

eIeLwsD.jpg

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9 hours ago, Fusca said:

I only have experience with seedlings but feel the same way.  Normanbya normanbyi are similar palms in my eyes - do you find them similar in growth rate?  I am curious about their cold hardiness also but I'm guess that the Wodyetia is slightly more hardy?

No experience whatsoever re cold hardiness....I am constantly amazed at the overnight lows they seem to handle in the States..... I know where they come from originally and the climate... 12*S of the equator so very tropical and would never see a freeze in habitat. But they do OK in Perth and Sydney a full 20* further south. There is a pic on this page of a healthy specimen in Phoenix, about as extreme heat and cold wise as imaginable. Alice Springs in Central Australia is a similar desert climate, and I don't recall them growing there, although I might be wrong. Alice Springs is a frosty place, probably in excess of 30 nights below freezing each winter. The ones growing in Perth and Mandurah ( 50 miles south of Perth ) are in pure beach sand, and even though the Mediterranean climate is the complete opposite to habit, they seem to thrive. Normanbya is also a very tropical species that do well in my yard ( I have a double headed one would you believe ? ) Fairly fast but not in the same league as say Pigafetta or Carpentaria.

 

Edited by greysrigging
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On 4/5/2020 at 10:41 PM, sonoranfans said:

what would the caliper on this foxtail be?  It looks bigger than any from around here where the rarely never exceed 10" caliper.  By comparison, royals grow much thicker here.  18" is typical for adult royals in public plantings, one of mine is ~28" caliper, the other(a cokebottle shape) is 24" but thickens to 30' plus at 15' above the ground.  There are some older foxtails here that have been well grown, nice color.and full crowns of 8-10 leaves.  But many have been planted up against houses in low drainage clay and suffer notable micronutrient deficiencies, they just look bad.  Rouyals do ok in that clay.  The clueless palm owner who doesnt recognize that palm fertilizer is different than that used for other trees does much better with a royal here.

That one of mine is 11 and a quarter inches in diameter at 3' above the ground.  A bit fatter up higher as is the norm in this species. My biggest Royal is 17.5" dia @ 3' above the ground, but of course is way fatter up higher, may well approach the 30" mark.

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5 hours ago, Palm Tree Jim said:

And another.

 

19BE64FC-7B8E-457E-A7DE-049285C85369.jpeg

Yep- Jim's are fat and happy, as I have seen them in person!

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Mission Viejo, CA

Limited coastal influence

5-10 days of frost

IPS and PSSC Member

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Mine are doing well... Probably 14-15" dia... My largest keeps getting trimmed by SO. CAL. Edison... I should never have planted it there, but at the time, I didn't think they got that big in California.. I'd take some pics, but it's raining pretty good right now...

 

Butch

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Here's a picture of mine. It's still looking a little ragged from winter.

1726785103_20200403_084231(2).thumb.jpg.673e0c6972dd6a7e15a1608ad4012867.jpg

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8 hours ago, Randall SD said:

Here's a picture of mine. It's still looking a little ragged from winter.

1726785103_20200403_084231(2).thumb.jpg.673e0c6972dd6a7e15a1608ad4012867.jpg

Ragged ? I've seen far worse ones in our poor soils at 12*S of the Equator than that beauty of yours.... They really don't mind the Mediterranean climate it seems.

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5 hours ago, greysrigging said:

Ragged ? I've seen far worse ones in our poor soils at 12*S of the Equator than that beauty of yours.... They really don't mind the Mediterranean climate it seems.

Well maybe not to ragged Here's a picture from last summer when it was enjoying the heat.20190825_102936.thumb.jpg.06b542cc8464b3f3a0379b95f3a65156.jpg

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These palms dont want low drainage soil.  When I walk around my neighborhood the ones planted up against the house(construction clay) look poorly while those planted away from the house look MUCH better.  Royals are not so selective about soil, they look nice and green against the house and also out in the yard.  If you dont give a royal enough water the trunk will be much more thin, almost like a foxtail.  But when given the water they want, royals are by far the thickest trunked crownshafted palm in my area.  I also think cold tolerance of foxtails is affected negatively when a foxtail is planted in heavy clay.  I had (2 )with 4-5' trunk, planted by the builder up against the house, and they both died in 28F x2 days in 2010, 8 months after I moved in.  Other foxtails -similarly sized and larger that were not planted up against the house- suffered no casualities in my neighborhood in 2010 from 28F x 2 nights.   I might plant another now that I understand they can look nice here(no chlorotic yellow tint with mold spots) if taken care of in higher drainage soil.

Formerly in Gilbert AZ, zone 9a/9b. Now in Palmetto, Florida Zone 9b/10a??

 

Tom Blank

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1 hour ago, Randall SD said:

Well maybe not to ragged Here's a picture from last summer when it was enjoying the heat.20190825_102936.thumb.jpg.06b542cc8464b3f3a0379b95f3a65156.jpg

Either way... A great palm!..

 

Butch

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Not the biggest I've seen, but maybe the biggest in the city. These are at me parent's house, a couple miles south of me. I think in our climate they might only survive against the house facing south. Two others smaller ones died planted away from their house. And everyone that I have planted at my house have died after living for at least three years in large pots that I was able to move against the house during winter. 

DSCN7240.JPG

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Biggest I've seen is the one at the Edison Estate and Museum in Ft Myers Florida. When I first saw it in 2016 I assumed it was a royal due to its size (and my lack of palm knowledge at the time). Here it is in November of 201920191119_120139_HDR.thumb.jpg.9d785a06587fd1fe606c0776c10fc15a.jpg

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