Collecting palm seeds in the rainforest

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Yesterday I drove out to the country to visit my friend Alexander. He owns a spice and tropical flower farm located about 30 minutes outside of town. He has a section of rainforest down by the Naranjo River that has been left alone and untouched for 35 years. In the past I have found some really cool plams growing here. Alexander told me a long time ago that I was welcome to collect any palm seeds I could find on his property. I finally made it out there yesterday to see what I could find.

Alexander sent one of his employees with me (armed with a machete in case we ran across a nasty snake). His name is Jorge and he has been working on this property for 32 years. He knows this land like the back of his hand and when I told him I was looking for palms and seed, he took me on a hike and showed me every palm he knew about.

I've posted photos of this first palm before. In previous threads it was thought to be an Astrocaryum species. Here is a photo with Jorge for scale. This palm always stops me in my tracks!

And finally I found some seeds on this palm! These were not ready yet, but Jorge is going to keep an eye on them for me and collect them with ripe.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

A little further away we found some larger clumps of this same palms with ripe seeds. Jorge cut them off and bagged them before I even had a chance to photograph them. These clumps also had a lot of green seeds on them.

More unripe seeds

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

He also showed me this small palm that was only about 3.5 ft tall (about 1 meter). There were a few of them growing in this area.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

I think this is a beautiful palm, whatever it is. I like the way the leaflets are arranged - it gives the palm a unique look.

Could this be Bactris gracilior or Bactris maraja? I was also able to collect some seeds from this palm.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

A few more photos of this very ornamental palm

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Another photo of a spiny entire leafed palm

Cryosphila growing down a hillside

Neonicholsonia watsonii. I was able to collect a lot of seeds of this palm.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Jorge showed me this palm which I had missed on previous visits. It has no spines and was clumping.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

More of the same palm shown above

leaf detail

It did have seeds, but they were still green

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

I kept finding more and more of these entire-leaf spiny palms. The first time I visited this property, I only saw one.

More fruit

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Asterogyne martiana

Jorge quickly cut off all the dead fronds and cleaned it up so I could take a good photo.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

As we walked closer to the river, we found the first of many Socratea exorrhiza.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

A assume this is Chamaedorea. I really like the wide leaflets on this palm. They had very skinny trunks and some specimens were quite tall. I collected a lot of seeds from these palms also.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

A few more photos of the same palm

Ripe seeds. You can also see a Neonicholsonia watsonii directly behind the seeds.

[paulgila]

amazing pix,jeff, & what a "palm paradise!"

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Looking up into the crown of Socratea exorrhizum

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Neonicholsonia watsonii

new leaf opening

base of the plant

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Jorge said this was a palm. It was a climber with thorns. The leaves don't look like palm leaves so I am not sure. Maybe this could be Desmoncus?

It was growing across the huge leaf of a Dracontium species.

spiny stem

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Geonoma interrupta - no seeds on this one, but there was a carpet of small seedlings underneath. I collected a handful of seedlings.

[Moose]

Jeff the Neonicholsonia watsonii are great palms and not very common.

It is a shame we don't see themin cultivation very often.

Thanks for your photos.

Best regards,

Ron.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

I have no idea what these palms are. They do not have spines under the leaves like the other palms I showed in the beginning of the thread. Some of them were very tall. At first I thought they were Asterogyne, but they looked different to me.

[bayside mike]

Nice pics. I like the ones without spines though.

Have you ever come across one of those perfectly spherical rocks in the jungle?

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Here's another interesting small palm. Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

Jorge digging me a small seedling from underneath

the flowers

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

More of the same palms shown in posts 4 & 5. I love this palm!

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Another cool looking palm that I can't identify

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

We ran into another Dracontium and Jorge stopped to show it to me. This one had a very tall flower.

Looking up

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

I think these are Geonoma congesta

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Jorge brought me to these plants and asked what kind of palm they were. I told him they are Asplundia, not palms.

People frequently mistake these for palms.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

We looped around and came back on the other side of where the Socratea were growing. At the base of this one I hit the jackpot. I collected about 200 freshly fallen seeds from around the stilt roots.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Cryosphila sp. No seeds on any of these.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Last photo. As I was leaving the farm, I took a photo of his massive Cyrtostachys renda which is getting overrun with Bougainvillea. That's Areca catechu sticking up on the right. A friend of Alexander's purchased a seed from Harrod's in London many years ago. He brought the seed with him to Costa Rica and gave it to Alexander who germinated and planted it. That's the palm you can see in this photo. Areca catechu - all the way from London!

I'll try and take some photos of the seeds I collected a little later.

[Gileno Machado]

Fantastic thread Jeff...The Geonoma, Neobicholsonia and Asterogyne all look perfect. The Bactris is very elegant looking too...our Bactris here are not that impressive.

Good luck with these seeds...

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

amazing pix,jeff, & what a "palm paradise!"

Thanks Paul!

Jeff the Neonicholsonia watsonii are great palms and not very common.

It is a shame we don't see themin cultivation very often.

Thanks for your photos.

Best regards,

Ron.

Ron, I agree they are great palms. They stay small, they always look nice, and they have a colorful inflorescence.

I don't know why these palms are not more common.

Nice pics. I like the ones without spines though.

Have you ever come across one of those perfectly spherical rocks in the jungle?

Mike, I like the spiney palms! No, I've never run across the stone spheres here in the forests. I did see some at the Osa Peninusula though.

Fantastic thread Jeff...The Geonoma, Neobicholsonia and Asterogyne all look perfect. The Bactris is very elegant looking too...our Bactris here are not that impressive.

Good luck with these seeds...

Thanks Gileno!

[Mike Evans]

Last photo. As I was leaving the farm, I took a photo of his massive Cyrtostachys renda which is getting overrun with Bougainvillea.

I'll try and take some photos of the seeds I collected a little later.

Jeff, excellent pics, as usual. I love the photos of the Socratea stilt roots. I have some 1 gal size here that I started. Waiting to see how they do in FL. Did the Cyrtostachys renda have seed? hint When I was tromping through the forests there, I thought to myself, I am out of my league here, I have never seen this stuff before.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Mike, his C. renda is so tightly packed together that I have not seen any seeds on it. You can not see into the clump. There must be a hundred or more canes in that clump.

I know how you felt, I feel out of my league all the time!

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hi Jeff

this palm looks like a Chamaedorea deckeriana which is native to the area, just went out and checked mine and the leaves are the same

regards

colin

Here's another interesting small palm. Anyone have any ideas what this could be?

Jorge digging me a small seedling from underneath

the flowers

[palmtreesforpleasure]

Hi Jeff

this one looks like C.elegans but they are not native to Costa rica, hmm

requires more research

regards

Colin

He also showed me this small palm that was only about 3.5 ft tall (about 1 meter). There were a few of them growing in this area.

[Walter John]

Man that bouganvillea has so got to go.

Thanks. See any serpents ?

[aussiearoids]

Jeff , the Dracontium could only be D.pittieri , no other sp. has an infloresence that high .

Very impressive pictures of some amazing palms .

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Hi Colin, thanks for the reply. I considered C. deckeriana but the trunk didn't match what I saw on PACSOA, although the leaves do look the same to me. This one has a messy brown trunk, it doesn't have the classic green ringed trunk that many Chamaedorea have. Take a look at the photo I posted of the inflorescence, you can see the trunk in that photo. Even the way the leaves were arranged made me think this was something else, but what do I know?

Jorge dug up a seedling for me, I hope it is C. deckeriana! I would love to have that palm.

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

Hi Jeff

this one looks like C.elegans but they are not native to Costa rica, hmm

requires more research

regards

Colin

He also showed me this small palm that was only about 3.5 ft tall (about 1 meter). There were a few of them growing in this area.

Colin, these were growing in an area between his house and the rainforest area, so these could have been planted. I took these photos on the walk down from his house. These are the only palms that I feel may not be native.