What is this on Robinson Crusoe island?

[Stevetoad]

Found this guy at 33 degrees south on Robison crusoe island (google earth exploring). Looks like a ceroxylon in poor shape or possibly psudophoenix. What say you??? Far left side of the photo

[quaman58]

Steve, my first thought was an old Hyophorbe..

[Darold Petty]

Wouldn't the greater probability be just a funky Juania ?    

[Stevetoad]

9 minutes ago, Darold Petty said:

Wouldn't the greater probability be just a funky Juania ?    

yes it would! i didnt know they were native there. Thank you Darold!!

[Tyrone]

That Juania australis probably had some surrounding vegetation that may have given it a bit of protection. It’s not the most photogenic specimen of the species.

[palmsOrl]

I also vote for Juania australis.  

As a side note, I nominate this palm as, overall, the most difficult to grow palm species in the world.

Lord knows I've never tried.

-Michael

[Matthew92]

Kind of looks like a Pseudophoenix

[palmsOrl]

Based on the trunk, I would bet $100 on Juania.

[Tracy]

On 2/10/2021 at 12:16 PM, Stevetoad said:

in poor shape

I vote for a palm "in poor shape"!  Does that qualify as a good guess?    I can't quite imagine being stranded on an island with that for inspiration, I might want to move to a different island with some palms in better shape.

[Darold Petty]

I think that this is a textbook example of how plants are dependent on their original conditions under which they have evolved.  I would guess that this palm began life within a forest community of vegetation, and that this vegetation was cleared during the human habitation of this area.  Note how the palm's trunk is better formed with wider spacing of the leafbase scars near the bottom.  Compare this to the top growth.

  Large Ceroxylons also show the growth habit evolved in a dense plant community.  They grow a narrow, 'V' shaped crown profile until quite large, when presumably, the crown will grow above the surrounding canopy, and then change into a more hemispherical crown.  My C. quindiuense is about 45 feet tall, and is still holding the narrow profile, even though it is under a completely open sky exposure.