Whats happening to these Royals??? NEED HELP!!!!

[palmislandRandy]

In the past few days I've noticed many (more than a dozen) Roystonea canopys litteraly collapsing in my neighborhood! The lower fronds go first, then up the canopy to the spike. These are 30+ ft mature trees. How do you treat or stop this, it looks serious

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

Did you have an electrical storm? That sure looks like Lightning to me. Odd that more than a dozen would have been affected simultaneously.

[palmislandRandy]

Keith, We've had a lot of storms the past week. There are a lot of taller Washies around them, ya gotta figure if it was lightning they'd go first. I stopped & looked at some of them & none looked scorched. They all had just a spike sticking up! I'll drive by & take more pics. Not pretty!

[Mark Heath]

Wow!!! I am so sorry to see this!!! What the heck is going on????? I hope it does'nt spread everywhere!

[kahili]

whatever it is, and it does look scary, its happening to the shrubs underneath, which makes me think its a root issue. Not lack of water or the others would show too, so that leaves a good possibility of a fungus. It would have had to have been a extremely high dosage of fert to kill that fast. How close are the others to this palm that are dying as well? I know phytopthora can affect shrubs and palms-whether there is a strain that will get them both, I don't know.

[palmislandRandy]

I just took these. They are all within a mile of each other. Green one day then, crash! You can see most of the fronds are still nice and green. What the hell is killing them???

[PalmatierMeg]

That's scary. I've never seen royals do this.

[kahili]

this would be my guess http://palm_doctor.homestead.com/palm5.html

[redant]

I'd say lightning. The shrubs would be toast too as the electricity travels down the trunk to the ground. Royals are notorious for there ability to attract lightning as they are about 90% water. I had 4 palms taken out in one strike earlier this summer, several last year as well.

[palmislandRandy]

I'd say lightning. The shrubs would be toast too as the electricity travels down the trunk to the ground. Royals are notorious for there ability to attract lightning as they are about 90% water. I had 4 palms taken out in one strike earlier this summer, several last year as well.

I just went and looked at them again after speaking to the Palm Beach County Extension office. They said to look for some type of beetle borer damage. Very strange as the trunks show no damage of any kind, nor did any other nearby shrubs or trees, only the Royals! I spoke to a school crossing guard across the street & she said she just noticed them in the past few days.

[Jerry@TreeZoo]

The only thing that can kill that fast is lightning. I live pretty close to you and had a pine tree hite by lightning just this past wednesday. Scared the Hell out of me because it was not too far outside of the window where I was sitting. Some of the damage could be hidden by the drooping fronds and for the shrubs under it to be burned at the same time I just gotta say lightning.

[amazon exotics]

My guess is lightning damage. If it were Bud Rot the new spear would look bad. Doubt it's a borer because it usually takes a few weeks or longer to show damage like that and from the green frond's that are hanging it tells me this palm fell out quickly.

[edric]

I'd say lightning. The shrubs would be toast too as the electricity travels down the trunk to the ground. Royals are notorious for there ability to attract lightning as they are about 90% water. I had 4 palms taken out in one strike earlier this summer, several last year as well.

After reading your post, and then thinking for a minute, I thought wait a minute, the shrub in the first photo is toast! Ed

[Palm Guy]

I'll chime in and say lightning also! Its a typical reaction. All the lower frond drop in a rapid rate. More often then not its toast but there is a slim possibility it'll pull through.

As others have said before, you'd get a warning if it were a root or bud issue.

[palmislandRandy]

I'd say lightning. The shrubs would be toast too as the electricity travels down the trunk to the ground. Royals are notorious for there ability to attract lightning as they are about 90% water. I had 4 palms taken out in one strike earlier this summer, several last year as well.

After reading your post, and then thinking for a minute, I thought wait a minute, the shrub in the first photo is toast! Ed

Yeah, I drove by this again. None of them had any burn marks on them. Maybe because of all the water Royals hold, they kinda boiled or steamed.

[Davidl]

Lightning is what I think it is.

[Dypsisdean]

If you missed the presentation on Palm Pathology, there are some pics of lightning damage including what Dr. Nelson described as 'pith damage' that may be visible on the trunks.

You can wait 10-20 seconds until the slideshow is totally loaded and then search the thumbnails for the relevant slides (#27, #28, #29) PALM PRESENTATION

[bubba]

Randy, That certainly looks like lightning. We have had sucession of direct strikes over the last month and I noticed one just like that recently.

[Moose]

I concurr with the lightning diagnosis . Ask yourself this question: Why don't we see 100 ft Roystonias in Florida? The can grow to that height. Answer: They are massive lightning rods and never make it to that height. We are one of the lightning capitals of the world. Very sad to see such beautiful specimens take an early dirt nap. We will be crying (I'll be dead) in 50 years when long grown Kentiopsis olivformis start getting nailed by lightning. Just a fact of life here that life giving rains bring lightning.

Best regards to all,

Ron.

[tjwalters]

Are all these palms on commercial properties? If so, any chance that a landscaping company caring for them improperly mixed/applied chemicals? Just a thought.

Incidentally, lightning struck a tall oak in the woods two doors down from my house about a month ago and took out a total of 7 big (90') trees. They all turned brown over the course of a few weeks. These were trees that weren't hit directly, but were around the tree that was hit.

[kahili]

If it is lightening, I find it amazing for several reasons.

First-that there is absolutely no damage at all to any of the palms right next to the struck ones, and it looks like some are only a few ft away.

Also that there is no charred or burned look to any part of the palm-that seems almost impossible!

third-that none of the palms hit, broke where the strike was, and because all the palms are so uniform in appearance-it would have had to have hit them all the same way and same strength.

Fourth-that there is no sign of the lightening entering or exiting the trunk. I saw some pictures of some palms hit by lightening and there were holes in the trunks, or the trunks broke in half, and there was always some debris on the ground from the explosion. Did you see any broken leaves on the ground underneath any of them?

Fifth-that there were so many palms hit in such a small area in a short amt of time-which would indicate a heavy lightening storm in the area-but no signs of lightening strikes on anything else? Just these palms? I guess I am wondering if there was any news story about a lot of lightening damage in the area at this time?

I agree that if it was phytopthora bud rot, that the new leaves would not look so green, but I did see another fungus in Deans slide show called Chalara paradoxa (thielaviopsis) and there was a picture of a oil palm with it that looked exactly like these palms-all the leaves drooping down, but the newest leaf was upright and green. http://www.public.iastate.edu/~tcharrin/Palm.jpg

If these palms are on public property-they should do a soil sample for free, but it should only cost about 10-15 bucks to do one, and it only takes a few days to culture it. Its possible that because these palms were so high up, that the warning signs weren't apparent. I should add that its a stretch to think that all these palms went down at the same time because of a fungus affecting them-unless they were all in a very close area to each other-and they weren't. So I am stumped, but I do enjoy these puzzles (except that the palms are dying). I would keep an eye out on the ones near these and see if they do anything in the next few months.

[Keith N Tampa (ex SoJax)]

I think there have been some reported palm deaths due to Thialaviopsis here in FL (if memory serves, Washingtonias damaged by Hurricanes were the host). Still, Why are the shrubs at the base of the palm dead too? I suppose it isn't impossible, but I still feel Lightning is the most likely cause.

[Moose]

Roystonias are water pigs. These have been drinking lots of water during the rainy season therefore the trunks are a column of water right now. The palms could have been coated with water when the alledged lightning strikes occurred. Water is a great conductor of electricity. The exit may have happened in the root zone, therefore no exit wound would be observed. Lightning is unpredictable and an explosion does not necessarily need to happen in the upper region of the palm. Why does one get BBQ'd when the adjacent one go untouched, just lucky for the surviving palm is the answer. I cannot accept that any nutritional deficiency or invassive pest could cause such a rapid decline in such healthy robust specimens. Not even the dreaded red palm mite or Lethal yellowing disease cause a decline as rapid as what has been described. Just an opinion of a fellow Palm-a-holic

Regards to all visiting this thread,

Ron.

[kahili]

Keith, I am thinking that the shrub at the base was the first to go from the fungus-which would make sense as the smaller the plant,the faster it will die. Thielaviopsis (and phytopthora) will kill shrubs. It makes more sense to me that that happened than the lightening totally fried the shrub, but not one leaf of any of the palms (where I am assuming the hits happened). If the lightening didn't hit the crown (to explain why no friend leaves, then there should be an entry point that would show, and there isn't. Also-this is the time for a fungus to be very active-lots of water, heat and humidity.

Moose, I get what you are saying about the Roystonias being water hogs, but if the lightening struck high, you would see the entry point on at least a few of the trunks, and debris on the ground-and I would think some burnt leaves. I could accept that it happened that way on maybe one or two palms, but 12? All exactly the same way? Not one is broken/snapped where the lightening would have hit it.

after reading what you wrote about Roystonias being such magnets for lightening, to the degree that that is why there aren't any tall ones around-why the heck would anyone plant one in south Fla? Speaking of-aren't there 100 ft ones in Cuba, and don't they get lightening? Maybe they should stick to Hawaii where lightening is very rare.

[bayside mike]

I have seen a royal palm get struck by lightning 70 ft. away,and it does exactly that. It doesn't always leave burn marks. Right after the strike there was smoke coming up from the base of the tree. Just a few pieces of the spike frond laying around. The fronds don't drop right away, it takes a day or two.

I have even seen a row of vietchia palms in my tree farm lose about 12 in a row from lightning, and other palms here and there.

It just depends on what spot is hot at that specific time.

[Moose]

We plant them because they are beautiful and native to Florida . If we only get to enjoy them for 25 or 40 years, it's OK with me. Another issue, I don't believe I would want to be under an 80+ Footer when it lets it frond go. I have 25+ footers at my home and when the fronds come down it is with considerable force. I would rather the lightning hit my "living lightning rods" than my house.

Best regards,

Ron.

[rozpalm]

I would have to be in the lighting camp. One possibility to consider, would be deliberate poising. I know for fact that a gallon of lamp oil will take out a 25' Coconut in a similar fashion.