Caryota urens x mitis-hybrid

[Eric in Orlando]

I've posted about this palm before but here is a recap on my Caryota urens x mitis...

I grew this specimen from seeds I collected at Cypress Garden around 1981 or '82. I was still in Jr. High Shool and this was one of the first palms I grew from seed. In the old jungle garden part of Cypress Gardens, there were Caryota urens that were fruiting and I collected some seeds from them. There were also fruting C. mitis nearby but I collected C. urens seed as I had never seen a single trunked fishtail palm then. I had several germinate and they got a couple feet tall but our pet rabbit kept chewing them down and only one survived. I kept it in a container and planted it out at my mom's house around '91. It was about 6ft tall. After it was in the ground it started to sucker. It didn't sucker heavily, just the main stem and 2 side shoots. These grew well and in '95 the main stem was about 30ft tall, the 2 suckers about 15-20ft. In '95 the main stem began flowering but wasn't holding seed. In Feb. 1996 we had a night at 26F which defoliated the palm. The suckers regrew but since the main stem was flowering it didn't grow any new leaves but still grew new inflorescences. It flowered for another couple years but never set seed. The inflorescences were about halfway down the trunk but then stopped producing anymore and it never set fruit. Then the 2 side shoots started to die off. I cut down the trunk and the 2 smaller ones. The base still seemed alive but no new growth. After another year or so a new shoot started to emerge. It grew up and then 2 suckers grew off of it, just like before but only 2 again and positioned perfectly on each side of the main stem. It then grew over the next few years. Last year all 3 stems have started flowering and now it is holding lots of fruit so hopefully it has viable seeds. Since then it has grown a couple new suckers at the base. Here are some photos;

[paulgila]

wow! looks great eric!

[osideterry]

That might be the ideal Caryota. Not as aggressively clumping like a mitis, but still keeps pushing new growth. I want one now.

[paulgila]

same here!

go get us some,terry!

[Eric in Orlando]

I'm hoping it sets viable seed. If so, I will donate them to the seedbank of CFPACS so they can distribute them. It is a nice sparse clumper that doesn't take up as much room as C. mitis.

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

Very Nice looking Caryota! I hope you get viable seeds.

[orlandozone9b]

Eric,

I think I bought a very similar palm to this in Orlando recently - I posted about it.

how is it doing? Have trunks died after flowering yet?