Last weekend I was out in Winter Garden, a former citrus town about 20 miles west of Orlando. This road used to be lined with Washingtonia robusta in this section. These are all that remain. These are just about the tallest I have seen around here. Can't imagine them surviving the lightning for much longer. I took the photo from the site of an old citrus packing house.

Those are tall by CA standards. How did they live so long? Is there a radio tower nearby?

Wow! I suppose you need an oxygen breather to trim these,

I believe their luck will run out soon !

Holy crap! If I were a gambling man, I'd put better than even odds that one or more of these would be hit by a strike this summer...

I'm sure they'll be fine; looks like they've made it above the clouds!

Ken, you think you could move one of these? My dad says, "I know he can".

Holy crap! If I were a gambling man, I'd put better than even odds that one or more of these would be hit by a strike this summer...

I agree !!!!!!!!

You know, when they get that tall and skinny, they just look goofy.

You know, when they get that tall and skinny, they just look goofy.

Haha, my thought exactly - holds true for many palms, - specially royals

I occasionally see very tall Washingtonia Robusta palms in Florida, but they generally seem to peak at a medium height here.  Why do the Washingtonia Palms in southern California get so much taller than in Florida?

Lightning/rain is far more rare in So. Cal..

2 minutes ago, Sandy Loam said:

I occasionally see very tall Washingtonia Robusta palms in Florida, but they generally seem to peak at a medium height here.  Why do the Washingtonia Palms in southern California get so much taller than in Florida?

 

There was a suuuuuuuuuuuper duper tall one in Naples on the vacant property of an old farm/produce stand, I think it was. I was always in awe of how tall it was! It was sooo tall that its trunk looked thin! Of course Irma destroyed it 

Surely Florida weather is not the only reason for this difference between Southern California and Florida.  California gets lightning too, even if there is less of it.  Also, the weather would not explain why Florida Washingtonia Robustas often seem to reach about 30 feet tall and then plateau (or grow much more slowly thereafter).  Maybe it is simply a matter of age --- California has more 100 year old Washingtonias than Florida?  Perhaps they simply thrive better in the dry climate of Southern California as opposed to wet Florida.  I am just tossing around possibilities here, buy I remain puzzled.

Now fusarium is killing them too. But before the disease started killing them almost every super tall one that I was watching would get blasted by a lightning strike. I even have witnessed several getting hit, they almost explode like dynamite was detonated in the crown. We have so much more lightning than in CA, almost every day from late May into Sept.-Oct. And so many strikes in the storms every day so much more chances for them being hit. But specimens growing up against highrises and hotels hardly ever get hit.

I can't see the photo as it no longer shows up, but there are very tall ones all over the Saint Petersburg  area.  Some pushing 60-80 feet all I would guess.  They are very common here and are still planted often.   There are 8-10 right on Vinoy Park Beach and about 6 or so older ones that look to be 60-80' tall.    Most of the ones I recognize from my years coming down here are still here and have been for a long time.  I have noticed a lot more dead ones around as well, some very tall, some not so tall. My guess is the taller ones get hit by lightning and probably the not so taller ones succumb to Fusarium. 

This is the only pic I have of them currently. It's a screen shot from a video I took as Hurricane Irma approached.  Winds were gusting 60 or so at the time. 

 Here is the Video the above photo was screen shot from:  - Feel free to follow / subscrbe to me there as I will be using it more often. 

 

 

 

Here are quite some tall ones in a neighborhood near Tampa Bay. We had drove down this street a year ago and they seemed even taller in person.

some in sarasota

I mean I know Washingtonia robusta are skinny, but the ones in Florida that are tall are looking like twigs! What's up with that? Also, the crowns look so small, anyone know why? 

Edited October 13, 20178 yr by PalmTreeDude

17 minutes ago, PalmTreeDude said:

I mean I know Washingtonia robusta are skinny, but the ones in Florida that are tall are looking like twigs! What's up with that? Also, the crowns look so small, anyone know why? 

That’s called senecense in at tree (and other things). It’s just like people in old age, they are not as heathy and robust any more, a tree gets to where it’s growth slows and it can’t support a large canopy and thick trunk any more, they are declining as they age. 

Here are some quite tall (for FL standards) W. robusta I found on street view in Lake Wales. They seem pretty old. This is a main street that goes through downtown- so I imagine they were planted many decades ago when that style of formal street planting was popular (i.e. W. robusta in Los Angeles). Next time I visit there, I'll have to take pictures.

Interesting how they seem to have slight lean to the south.

Significant weathering on the trunk bases

Here's a rough map I made of the aerial view showing locations of the W. robusta on this street. I noticed ones of identical height are found across the railroad tracks a few blocks down as well, indicating the possible original length of the planting. Of course, lightning has probably been the main culprit of eliminating the trees. Even looking on archive aerial imagery, I can see that there were a few more that are now gone as recently as several years ago. In between the old trees, there are younger ones that look to have been planted in an effort to maintain the line.

@Opal92 I had long forgotten about these particular skydusters since I moved over here long ago.  Miss driving down Central.  Thanks for sharing!

On 10/10/2017, 12:15:05, Eric in Orlando said:

Now fusarium is killing them too. But before the disease started killing them almost every super tall one that I was watching would get blasted by a lightning strike. I even have witnessed several getting hit, they almost explode like dynamite was detonated in the crown. We have so much more lightning than in CA, almost every day from late May into Sept.-Oct. And so many strikes in the storms every day so much more chances for them being hit. But specimens growing up against highrises and hotels hardly ever get hit.

I find this to be a fairly accurate assessment. You do tend to see some very tall ones up close to high rise buildings.  Case in point, these trees in one of the tower complexes just up my street from me.   The leaning Washingtonia Robusta apparently has been like that for some time  likely due to high winds constantly buffeting it from the building.  If it were to stand straight up, it is 10 stories tall (Thats at or just over 100').   Note the very tall and likely very old Sabal Palmettos next to it, also leaning from winds whipping around the building.    The building is very long and about 25-30 floors tall  so the winds really pick up speed when hitting it and trying to move around it.  

there's a huge one off gunn hwy idk how tall it is but it appears to go over the pines
https://www.google.com/maps/@28.1543474,-82.5794378,3a,20.6y,278.52h,92.34t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sBSRI6kEs4P_TTAFNvjqIZA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DBSRI6kEs4P_TTAFNvjqIZA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D95.86967%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100?hl=en&authuser=0

I don’t want to get off topic here, but does anyone know why robustas in the Mediterranean don’t get as tall as the ones in California? I just notice that the ones growing in Spain are never as tall as the ones out in California, despite having a similar climate. 

2 hours ago, NC_Palms said:

I don’t want to get off topic here, but does anyone know why robustas in the Mediterranean don’t get as tall as the ones in California? I just notice that the ones growing in Spain are never as tall as the ones out in California, despite having a similar climate. 

The really tall ones in CA are often 65 to 100+ years old. Are there any that may be that old in Spain?

They aren't as tall as the tallest in California, but still quite impressive. They are said to be planted around 1900 in Rome, Italy: https://www.monumentaltrees.com/en/ita/lazio/roma/15461_campidoglio/

San Jose, California in the winter. These palms (Washingtonia and Phoenix) are about 100 years old.

Edited December 16, 20187 yr by Jim in Los Altos

Jim very beauty full 

thank you

I always chuckle when you see 2 very tall robustas at a home's sidewalk entry to the home. When people planted them, they had no clue (or didn't care) how tall they'd get. Looks odd.

10 hours ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

The really tall ones in CA are often 65 to 100+ years old. Are there any that may be that old in Spain?

After thinking about it, there are some larger ones in Sevilla that may be as old as the ones in California. 

Since I posted this in 2011, all of these palms have been taken out by lightning.

12 minutes ago, Eric in Orlando said:

Since I posted this in 2011, all of these palms have been taken out by lightning.

There was a really old tall one on Center st in Jupiter, taken out by lightning over the summer. Still seen on this map

  https://www.google.com/maps/@26.9415823,-80.1144424,3a,75y,248.98h,91.23t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1skIinhzhg7UpPAQulDpFDsQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Edited December 17, 20187 yr by redant

2 minutes ago, redant said:

There was a really old tall one on Center st in Jupiter, taken out by lightning over the summer.

I noticed that a couple months ago. My father in law lives a few blocks east of there and I have watched that palm for years , it was really tall and stuck out.

you need to come by sometime when in Jupiter, would be nice to show my yard to someone who appreciates palms. 

These two in Ellenton were super tall before they both died within a year of each other. I figured it was Texas Palm Decline, but it could have been lightning. 

https://goo.gl/GSS2JF 

 

1 hour ago, redant said:

you need to come by sometime when in Jupiter, would be nice to show my yard to someone who appreciates palms. 

I do, we always run out of time. We need to come down there for a week.

Here are some photos of some really tall specimens growing at the Swan and Dolphin Resort at Disney. They have lots of tall Washingtonia. But the tallest ones are up against the building. I took these photos in 2009.

 

 

Several i used to pass regularly on the way home from work. Whitfield area, just north of the Airport / West of Sara Bay Country Club. Same area has an old Delonix regia in another yard that looks to have been cut back often. Might have initially been damaged in a freeze /storm before.  Was no taller than roughly 10-12ft in height, Flowered every year. Several Gumbo Limbo nearby (On the Anna Maria Oyster Bar Landside property, on 41) that were pruned yearly as well. 

Via Google earth, Washingtonia along Pearl Ave, just east of the 41. Bradenton, FL.