Chamaedorea radicalis

[PalmGuyWC]

Chamaedorea radicalis is one of the more widely grown of the genera as it's very attractive, is quite hardy to heat and cold, and drought tollerant when established,  and it extends the range for an outside palm for many of us that get occasional freezes. It will take temps. down to about 22 F with no damage, and will survive much lower temps.

There are two forms, one that creeps along the top of the ground with a thick rhizome, and remains low and an "upright" form.  Something I have observed is that the low growing form may creep along the surface of the ground for many years, and even form a thick rhizome a foot long, and then suddenly grow vertically into the "upright form."  This may take many years, and sometimes they grow upwards and sometimes they remain low.  It seems many growers prefer the upright form, but I prefer the "creeping" low growing form as they tend to have wider leaf blades, and are more attractive than the upright form.   The internodes on the creeping rhizome are usually very close together, but when they decide to grow upwards, the internodes on the trunk are spaced much farther apart...up to 6 inches.

The low growing ones form a "heal," and after about 5 juvenile fronds, one can usually tell which way the rhizome will grow. I generally keep several containers of C. Radicalis in 5 gal. sized pots.  They are sun tolerant (with some shade) and I move them around in the summer to shade my more sun sensitive palms. As a single plant they don't hold many fronds, so I usually plant 5 or 6 to a container. Since the seeds germinate eaisly around a female plant, and there are often many of them....I dig up the seedlings and pot them.  I start out with a 1 gal. pot, and plant the seedlings close to the edge of the pot, with the direction of the rhizome pointed towards the outside of the pot.  After a year or so they are moved to a 2 gal., then to a 5 gal. sized pot.  They will remain nice looking for several years in a 5 gal pot, but when they become to large and crowded, they go into the ground, but I always have more smaller ones coming along.

With several plants in a container, the odds are, you will have both sexes, and the fruit is very attractive being a red/orange color and they hold the fruit a long time.

Cham. radicalis could be called the "walking palm,"  because when the seed clusters mature on their long bloom spikes they bend down from the weight of the fruit, and often rest on the ground beyond the perimeter of the mother plant.  There will often be clusters of seedlings around the mother plant where the seeds came to rest....and the process goes on and finally they can cover a large area, if given moisture and some dappled shade.

Birds and other critters seem not to be attracted to the fruit, so it seems the plants have devised their own way of reproducing and expanding their territory by mechanical means.

I have been growing them for over 30 years and in one moist, partially, shaded area, they have virtually formed a hedge.  I use them as a filler palm under taller palms. If you don't like to have bare spots in your garden...they make a wonderfull "filler."

This is probably more than you want to know about C. radicalis, but just some of my observations.

Dick

[DoomsDave]

Dick:

I have a bunch of them I use as filler as you describe.  They take the sun well, and make a nice ground cover.

They will, from what I hear, survive temperatures down in the low 20's F.

dave

[PalmGuyWC]

Hi Dave,

I think it's safe to say they will take it down to 22F with no damage.  Below that, they might show some stress.  Mine took it down to 14F in the big freeze in 89/90 and some were damaged, but they grew out of it.  Some of the tall growing types were killed, but some survived.  The lower growing ones are definately more hardy.  It's one tough palm.  I love 'em.

Dave, since your on here a lot, do you know anyone that might have 5 one gallon C. oreophila for sale?  I had several for many years, but they were killed in the big freeze.  I think they are good down to about 25 F.  They make great breeding stock with C. radicalis and the hybrid plant is georgeous.  Just C. oreophila alone is a very nice plant.  After C. radicalis and Microspadix, I think C. oreophils is the third most hardy Cham.

Dick

[Exotic Life]

Could the aslo handle wet conditions and frost ... ?

[Charles Wychgel]

(PalmGuyWC @ Dec. 28 2006,17:49)

QUOTE

 After C. radicalis and Microspadix, I think C. oreophils is the third most hardy Cham.

Dick

Chamaedorea potchutlensis is another hardy one 25F/-3,88889C

[chris.oz]

Dick,

Great ideas and description, more information than I have seen elsewhere on this species.  I got seed of both types a few years ago kindly sent to me by Barry Osborne.  The palms are now starting to grow strongly.  

One question.... what happens if you mix the forms..... what characteristics do the seedlings have?

[Jeff Searle]

Dick,

    You just wrote some good informative information on this tough, durable species. It might even be the toughest of the entire genus. I grow them and often am asked, what can grow up in northern Florida? I really don't grow much to offer for cold hardy species, but this is the one that I always offer. And it lends a little tropical look for the setting. Thanks,

Jeff

[Austinpalm]

Jeff,

Thanks for the info about C. radicalis.  I have been growing it in my yard here in Austin for 2 years now.  Even seedlings planted outside have weathered our winters with little damage.

I am also growing microspadix, elegans, and metallica.  So far, only elegans and metallica have shown any damage at 23F with ice.  However, both recovered nicely over the summer.  I am still looking for addition hardy chami.  Reading this post has given me some new species to look for.

[Austinpalm]

Ooops,

Sorry Dick, I credited Jeff with your post.

[PalmGuyWC]

I'm not sure you could tell the difference with seedlings if they were the upright kind or the ground hugging type.  In fact, I don't know where my uprights came from.  They just appeared among the others. I've always suspected that C. radicalis might go through a metimorphous when they reach an old age and suddenly change from growing from a rhizome, and then they turn upwards.  I suspect the upwards growth signals the latter part of their life.

I can remember years ago, Fairchild Gardens had some very old C. radicalis and the thick rhizomes were over a foot long and maybe 2 inches in diamater, and growing half submerged. Then one year, a couple of them started to form a trunk.  I moved from Fla. about that time and I lost track of them.

To make matters more confussing, some seedlings don't form a rhizome and grow upwards from the begining. Once in the upright form the leaf blades seem to be more narrow than the ground hugging type.

Frankly, I don't find the tall growing ones very attractive.  They don't hold many fronds and they look kind of "naked," but that's just my oppinion.

I'm not sure of this, but maybe the seedlings could be told apart by the heal.  It would be absent or not as pronounced on the upright form.

Is that confussing enough for you?

Dick

[Zac in NC]

Robbin- Yes, they come from NE Mexico which is pretty wet and cold, I need to get (correctly named) plants of this to try because it is so tough. I had one that I got as radicalis, but It wasn't, as I lost it to cold at a way too high a temperature. Anyone have seeds?

Zac

[Austinpalm]

Hello Zac,

I've got a few C. radicalis seeds/seedlings I wouldn't mind trading.  Do you have Brahea seeds/seedlings to trade?

Clay

[Charles Wychgel]

(PalmGuyWC @ Dec. 28 2006,21:28)

QUOTE

Is that confussing enough for you?

Dick

It is Dick

It's starting to look  like a Dypsis thread  :laugh:

[chris.oz]

(PalmGuyWC @ Dec. 28 2006,16:28)

QUOTE

I'm not sure you could tell the difference with seedlings if they were the upright kind or the ground hugging type.  In fact, I don't know where my uprights came from.  They just appeared among the others. I've always suspected that C. radicalis might go through a metimorphous when they reach an old age and suddenly change from growing from a rhizome, and then they turn upwards.  I suspect the upwards growth signals the latter part of their life.

I can remember years ago, Fairchild Gardens had some very old C. radicalis and the thick rhizomes were over a foot long and maybe 2 inches in diamater, and growing half submerged. Then one year, a couple of them started to form a trunk.  I moved from Fla. about that time and I lost track of them.

To make matters more confussing, some seedlings don't form a rhizome and grow upwards from the begining. Once in the upright form the leaf blades seem to be more narrow than the ground hugging type.

Frankly, I don't find the tall growing ones very attractive.  They don't hold many fronds and they look kind of "naked," but that's just my oppinion.

I'm not sure of this, but maybe the seedlings could be told apart by the heal.  It would be absent or not as pronounced on the upright form.

Is that confussing enough for you?

Dick

When Barry Osborne sent me the seeds, they were separated into upright and creeping forms.

Sure enough the palms grew from the outset either as a vertical stem or one which had a heel,  that is,  looked like the others but bent at a right angle at the base.

Hence my question about the mixing of the forms.  I gather Dick from what you are saying that the form of the seedling is not predictable ?

[PalmGuyWC]

Chris,

I'm not sure I understand you.  Did you mean that all the upright seedlings had no heal and the ground hugging had heals or were bent at the base? If so, I would imagine that would be the case.  Since the foliage would look the same in seedlings, maybe this is the only way to tell the two apart.

I'll have to pay more attention when I pot some up this spring which, Ugg, is 4 months away.

Dick

[chris.oz]

(PalmGuyWC @ Dec. 28 2006,19:11)

QUOTE

Chris,

I'm not sure I understand you.  Did you mean that all the upright seedlings had no heal and the ground hugging had heals or were bent at the base? If so, I would imagine that would be the case.  Since the foliage would look the same in seedlings, maybe this is the only way to tell the two apart.

I'll have to pay more attention when I pot some up this spring which, Ugg, is 4 months away.

Dick

Dick,

I thought I recognised the name ! On re-reading  my Hodel; Chamaedorea, I find that I owe you some recognition, as it seems you are effectively the pioneer of hybridising Chamaedorea ! !

Well in response, I can only say that I am growing  2 types.  One with a heel and one without.   They are too young yet to show the ground hugging growth characteristic.  I have assumed that the heel is the discriminant.

[PalmGuyWC]

Hi Chris,

Thanks, but your making me blush.  Actually, there were other Chamaedorea hybrids around before I came on the scene.

The only hybrid that I did that I think is noteworthy is C. oreophila and radicalis.  I think I discussed it in another Chamaedorea thread.  The hybrid plant is superior to both its parents and it's very hardy to cold, however I lost four to the big freeze in 1989/90, but 3 survived 14F. and are growing in my garden to this day.  It is described in the Hodel book

Dick

[paulgila]

clay what kind of brahea seeds are you looking for?

[Zac in NC]

Yeah, I don't have many/any Brahea seeds. I have a few B elegans Nacapule Canyon I collected in July but they are already promised out. I don't have any moorei or decumbens seeds either nd I don't know exactly when I'll get anymore of either of those. No immediate Mexico trips planned right now(though I would love to)

On Chamaedorea hybrids, we also have that one that Al in Kona( another of our members   ) found that is in that book too. I belive that one is a radicalis by microspadix if my memory is correct.

Zac

[chris.oz]

(Zac in NC @ Dec. 29 2006,13:34)

QUOTE

On Chamaedorea hybrids, we also have that one that Al in Kona( another of our members   ) found that is in that book too. I belive that one is a radicalis by microspadix if my memory is correct.

Zac

According to Hodel, the C. Alan Bredeson was named for him but was made by Dick.

[Zac in NC]

Ah ok, I see. Well, thats still Al in Kona. ::

Zac

[Urban Rainforest]

Many years ago I was touring a palm society members garden when we came to a Chameadorea Radicallis tree form in fruit. I was admiring it when he gave me a handfull of seed. Well every single one came up but as they grew something interesting happened. Some of them looked like the tree form but some of them came out like hybrids. The hybrids? are tall like the tree form but have a large heel and wider dark green leaflets! I prefer this form as its the best of both worlds. Both forms always look flawless. Steve

[chris.oz]

These are a couple of my seedlings with heel.

[chris.oz]

These have no heel.  So,  can the form be predicted from the presence/absence of the heel ?

[PalmGuyWC]

Chris,

Those are perfect photographs to demonstrate the discussion.  Thanks.  I wrote a long blerb on this subject yesterday, then accidently erased it.  There are some things about this web site I haven't figgured out yet.  The mind certainly is one of the first things to go with age.

Dick

[PalmGuyWC]

While using the search function to get some information on Chamaedoreas, I came across this very old thread, which is mostly about Chamaedorea radicalis. There have been some questions asked about Camaedoreas lately, and the entire page 24 deals with Chamaedoreas. Kamipalms, who is the King of Chamaedoreas in Australia has posted some nice photographs and commentary.

For those of you who are new to Palm Talk, or even the old hands might find this page interesting. It answers a lot of questions that I've seen asked lately. I warn you, this is a very old thread.

Dick

[gyuseppe]

Chamaedorea radicalis, no problem at Naples-Italy.my radicalis, has many seeds

[PalmGuyWC]

I'm no computer genus. Going through the search function, the Cham. page is either 23 or 24. It keeps changing.

Dick