Seagrapes are all over down here but I saw a neat specimen of this (Giant Seagrape) in a local garden:

I believe it is primarily grown in the lower Carribean and hard to grow here.

Bubba,

What a great looking tree, it's really full of branches. It's probably very old. What garden was this planted in? Thanks!

Jeff

That's a gorgeous tree-- or is it a shrub?

How big were the leaves? I hear they get to be around 4 feet wide?! A friend of mine has one and the largest leaf is about 3 feet wide-The leaves are thinner and softer than cocoloba rugosa so I wonder how well the leaves will hold up when they are really huge.

I've heard a few stories of how big leaves of Coccoloba Species can get but I am a bit skeptical. Bigger than a man??? Check out this link to my blog and look at the last 2 pictures. I suspect the one with the man is a Photoshoped fake ( but I am on the fence about it) but the second one with the lady (and that leaf is actually bigger) looks real.

Here is the link:

http://freakofnaturezzz.blogspot.com/2009/...a-its-tree.html

Jeff and Gene, It's located in the Bethesda By The Sea Episcopal Church Garden in Palm Beach. There are many other interesting specimens in this Garden. It also included that extremely large Coral Tree (Ethyrina). I will look for other interesting stuff.

Gene, That is a great site. It must be a different last name (pubescent/rubrossa).This leaf is big but not that big!

Yup. The super large Coccolobas are suppose to be unnamed species.

I think it was also a forum member on palm talk that said that he has seen the man size leaves growng in the jungles himself -- I think it was Amazondk.

It would be col to get seeds and try growing those for ourselves.

How does the entire tree look like?

From pictures on the net they all seem to look lscrawny and leggy as they grow old.

The one on your post looks nice and "bushy" but are those several plants or several branches coming from a single trunk?

Gene, friends of mine in Florida chop their Coccolobas back when they start getting too leggy.

Seagrapes are all over down here but I saw a neat specimen of this (Giant Seagrape) in a local garden:

I believe it is primarily grown in the lower Carribean and hard to grow here.

I've never seen fruit on this tree, but know a few local growers that try to air layer them. They are definitely slower and less robust than C. uvivera. The tree has grown well and looks great, but I don't think Bethesda would like aluminum foil on the branches to propagate it.

They do have a nice Moorish style garden there with a great sausage tree, nice begonias, crotons, old canary date, etc.

Chip

Gene, I had a chance to look closely at the tree today. It is approximately 15 feet tall. It has 3 distinct trunks that flow from a master trunk under ground. Then there are additional offshoots from each of the three trunks. This is poorly worded!