Archie purpurea

[JubaeaMan138]

This trees has blown me away how well it has done 

[JubaeaMan138]

Planted on the north west side of the property . Gets about a hour of sun in the afternoon 

[JubaeaMan138]

Parajubaea next to it don’t look to shabby either but I feel like it hasn’t grown at all thanks @DoomsDave one of the many I have around the property from you 

[JubaeaMan138]

[JubaeaMan138]

Archie purpurea came from @rhallford826 couple years back 

[Jim in Los Altos]

Nice Archontophoenix. It should be showing the characteristic purplish crown shaft by now though and yours is green. Even at a much younger age, the purple begins showing. Is it possible you were sold a different Archie species? 

[Billeb]

 

30 minutes ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Nice Archontophoenix. It should be showing the characteristic purplish crown shaft by now though and yours is green. Even at a much younger age, the purple begins showing. Is it possible you were sold a different Archie species? 

I was gonna say….not much Purpurea in that Purpurea. Hope it starts changing colors!

-dale

[JubaeaMan138]

It’s all possible . I thought the same thing . Which species would we think it would be ?

[JubaeaMan138]

How about maxima?

[tim_brissy_13]

Agree with others above. Not really showing any of the typical A purpurea growth habits even apart from the lack of purpurea. Overall I’d say it looks typical of A alexandrae at that size which would be most likely purely in terms of how common it is. But I doubt anyone could be confident to rule out maxima, myolensis or tuckeri which all look similar at that size and can all vary in appearance depending on exposure etc. 

[LJG]

Agreed, doubt Purpurea. Growing too fast. Easy way to confirm, look under leaflet. If it has Ramenta, then just not a colorful Purpurea. No Ramenta, has to be one of the others with silvery undersides. 

[Dusty CBAD]

Seems like kings get confused and mislabeled all the time. I have a friend that thought he had a purpurea, little bit bigger than yours with about 2 feet of trunk. He even still had the tag that said “purpurea” on it. Looked just like yours. I’m no expert to say for sure it wasn’t, but to me it looked like a maxima. My guess for yours would be maxima. Could be a different variety but Purpurea is the most unique/easiest to tell apart of the king palms and it doesn’t look like one. Either way, my friends was the prettiest plant in his yard and yours looks awesome too 

[James B]

Very true. Much like Dypsis Archontophoenix is a mess just on a smaller scale. All subspecies are mislabeled all the time. 
I have been sold 2 A.Maxima that I believe are just Alexandrae. I have multiple Alexandrae I have bought from HD labelled as Cunninghamiana.

With HD or Moon Valley it’s no surprise when they mislabel as they just care about sales.

Its disappointing when private growers mislabel as the seed size and shape of various Archie’s are different from one another and any serious grower should be able to identify from the seed they use.

[JubaeaMan138]

16 hours ago, LJG said:

Agreed, doubt Purpurea. Growing too fast. Easy way to confirm, look under leaflet. If it has Ramenta, then just not a colorful Purpurea. No Ramenta, has to be one of the others with silvery undersides. 

Hey Len 

what do you mean by Ramenta? What am I looking

for ?

[JubaeaMan138]

[JubaeaMan138]

[JubaeaMan138]

Underside has a tan color with some light brown speckling. 

[James B]

They are small brown hairs that run along the underside of the individual leaflets. If you have Cunninghamiana in your yard it will have them. Yours appear to not have rementa so it’s one of the palms in the Alexandrae complex or it could be a hybrid. 

[Alan_Tampa]

I'm thinking albang 

[JubaeaMan138]

7 minutes ago, James B said:

They are small brown hairs that run along the underside of the individual leaflets. If you have Cunninghamiana in your yard it will have them. Yours appear to not have rementa so it’s one of the palms in the Alexandrae complex or it could be a hybrid. 

Interesting . The king palms that are normally grown in my area usually look horrible . Which is why I’ve stuck to only growing a couple . My maxima and this one have really changed my appreciation for kings . Looks like I need to add a couple More different species of Archie’s 

[LJG]

35 minutes ago, JubaeaMan138 said:

Yep, not a Purpurea. No ramenta. Just a guess at this point between Alex, Tuck, Max and Mao. 

[Matt in OC]

Here’s my better looking purpurea. They tend to get beat up by the end of winter. 

[JubaeaMan138]

6 minutes ago, Matt in OC said:

Here’s my better looking purpurea. They tend to get beat up by the end of winter. 

I remember you showing me this when I was there!! Definetly see the difference and the ramenta under the leaflets 

[tim_brissy_13]

3 hours ago, Alan_Tampa said:

I'm thinking albang 

It actually does look very similar to my hybrid of a similar size. From what I’ve seen A a x c and the reverse hybrid typically look more like alexandrae but with that slight yellowish colour to the crownshaft with brown specks similar to cunninghamiana. Based on the above, it’s either that or one of the alex/tuck/max/myo as stated above. 
 

Here’s my A cunninghamiana x alexandrae for reference.