BIG PALULU - PHENAKOSPERMUM GUIANENSE

[simona]

There's this south American red traveler's palm....

Anyone growing them?

It says here

http://www.tropilab.com/palulu-big.html

that they are hardy for USDA zone 9B  :cool:

[fastfeat]

Can't view the pics. Haven't heard of it before.

[Jeff Searle]

This is a giant all right. I want to say that this plant is mentioned in Fred Berry's book on Heliconia's. But I'm not 100% sure and I don't have the book in front of me.

Fastfeet, I was able to click on below to the 7-8 pictures and they all came up. I have never seen this plant before or seen any offered.

Jeff

[simona]

Synonym : Ravenala Guianense.

Common name : South American travelers palm, big palulu, red traveler's palm, Patujْ Gigante.

Family : Strelitziaceae (Bird of paradise family).

Overview: Big Palulu is a tropical plant, native to Surinam, growing up to 30' tall; it has large flowers in non - overlapping, boat - shaped red bracts.

The large leaves, among the world largest, are banana - like and used by the indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest for roofing cover.

The ripe fruits are capsular (4" long) with multiple rows of shiny dark seeds.

Must be something ....

[Jeff in Costa Rica]

RPS has seeds occasionally.  I ordered some a few years ago and got 2 or 3 to sprout.  Unfortunately they all dampened off and died as seedlings.  I hope to try again, it's a very cool plant.  

Phenakospermum guyannense

[LJG]

Hmmm. Might have to try this. Although I do not beleive this:

Hardiness

USDA zone 9B - 11. 9b?

[simona]

Yeah, it's cool but I can't believe either that it might be so hardy...

Just look at it's distributional range:

Northern South America: French Guiana; Guyana; Suriname; Venezuela [s.?]

Brazil: Brazil

Western South America: Bolivia - Beni, La Paz, Pando; Colombia [e.?]; Ecuador - Napo; Peru - Amazonas, Loreto

Uuuups  , I just found out that it has been discussed about it two years ago....  

 http://palmtalk.org/cgi-bin/ptarchive/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=4;t=1143

Would be interesting to know if it survived outdoors at  Eric S. / Orlando,FL z9b/10a .

[aussiearoids]

There has been more recent discussion and a few pictures posted .. Don posted a pic  of one growing on the side of the road in the Amazon , it is a very common plant down there . It was growing at the flower farm I worked on . It took many years to get established , but once growing well it thrived . Tok about 5 years of god growth to flower . Long runners make it a plant that needs lots of space , and I do not think it would grow well out of the tropics .

[cagary]

I ordered 10 "rhizomes" from Tropilab last year. They sent 17. Most failed to grow and the few that did died soon afterwards. My mix was 1/3 sand, 1/3 perlite and 1/3 peat moss. Next time I'm going to use less peat moss.

Here's some photos of the plant.

[Eric in Orlando]

I think this is a very hard plant to cultivate when young or get established. I have tried hundreds of seeds but only have had a few germinate and these all died a few months later. I have also tried rhizomes and none made it. We were given one by the Tree Farm at Disney. They got one seed to grow and survive. They split the pup off and gave it to us. I planted it out a couple years ago and it survived the winter of 2006-07, mid 30sF but under tree canopy. It was growing fine but then started declining in early autumn last year and is now deceased. I will have to check if they have any others. Must be a real picky plant. Here is the one we had;

[simona]

Thank you all for the fast and interesting answers.

You are just great!

[bubba]

Simona, Looks like a great one that is under-utilized.Still looking for the red. Is it in the bloom?

[fastfeat]

Thanks for the pics--looks cool.

I'm running Firefox with NoScript, but for some reason, the box to allow me to permit the script doesn't open. Probably an issue on my end...

[simona]

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought, Bubba!

It seems the flowers are white and it's got the red traveler's palm name from the shaped red bracts (???) or because seeds sport bright red arils (the arils of Ravenala madagascarensis are blue).

[simona]

Well, Don K. has got a pic of them in "TRAVEL LOGS » A Trip to the Forest of Arco Iris"...

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