Last week my husband & I went to a reunion with his two brothers at the oldest brother's home in Del Rio, Texas, down on the Mexican border. The trip required two plane rides and a 3-hour drive into the land of sage brush, cacti and Border Patrol. The second day there my husband & I checked out the town Home Depot and two independent garden centers for some plants we could give our host to thank him for putting up with us. HD had nada. The 2nd garden center yielded a half-price Agave montana with 3 nice plants. We planted the two largest in my B-I-L's yard.

The last nursery had little except types of oaks - lots of oaks. Then we saw rows of Chamaerops humilis in 3g pots. They looked like typical Chamaerops....except in the center of one row was this tiny, stubby, clustering dwarf of a palm that stood out from the others. I asked the proprietor about it but he knew scarcely more than I did. All he could tell me was that all his Chamaerops came from the same source and, presumably, the same seed lot;

Well, this palm was decidedly different from its presumed siblings. I bought it, then mailed it and the agave to my home. My little Chamaerops arrived yesterday and I potted it before deciding where on my new property to plant it. I took loads of photos.

With the photos I took the following measurements.

Height (excluding pot): 12" (30 cm)

Width of stem: 2-1/2" (6 cm) at widest point

Petioles: 2'-1/2 to 3-1/2" (6-9 cm) long

Leaf: largest/oldest 6" (15 cm) wide, others 4-5" (10-12 cm) wide

I know this genus doesn't get much press here but I think this little guy is cool. Goes to show a treasure can show up in the unlikliest places.

Chamaerops humilis "Del Rio"

Meg, seeing this dense crown, I would say it is Chamaerops humilis vulcano. If that is true, the petioles should be wider than in a "normal" humilis and almost without spikes. I will add photo's of my own vulcano. This is a beautiful palm!

Regards,

Wim.

That does seem different. I have no clue what that is but I like its look. I will be very interested go watch it grow.

Is a chamaerops Vulcano definitively... they are quite common here in southern europe...

I have 3 varieties of chamaerops which have serious diferences between them...

Have 2 species growing in a slope in my parents' land (vulcano and cerifera), right of the image:

Chamaerops vulcano close view (wider leaflets)

Chamaerops Cerifera (blue leaves...)

Closer view of a Chamaerops Humilis (common form) I have in pot with more dark green and thiner leaflets...

Edited November 5, 201213 yr by Halekuma

Wim, I also posted these photos on the EPS forum, which has many members who know and grow this palm. Some people thought it is a Vulcano, but others think it is something else or even a new mutation. Apparently C. humilis comes in many forms. If it is a Vulcano I wonder how it came to be in a remote place like Del Rio, TX. I tried to locate a Vulcano a couple years ago but couldn't find one anywhere in the US. A generous EPS member sent me some seeds and I germinated my own. I have 3 or 4 planted on my new property.

Meg is no Vulcano,perhaps hybrid of Vulcano

Meg:

That is certainly an adorable little one!

As others have mentioned, Chamaerops are quite variable. If you can, try to lay hands on the silver variant, commonly called "cerifera" which has been given a new name. They're strikingly silver all over, just the antidote to all that green.

Hey Meg, nice little chamy find! I like this species and try to collect different forms of it... truly think it's an under apprecited species. Hope this little guy grows well for you!

Meg, I think yours is var. gracilis. have a look at your topic in the EPS. Your palm resembles much my gracilis and it corresponds to the description in an old german catalogue. Make also sure whether it grows fastly or slowly. In latter case it is definitely a gracilis.

Thanks for your input, everyone. I'm still puzzled how this stubby little palm ended up in such a remote place as Del Rio.

Dave, I do have a C.h. cerifera/argentea planted on the east side of the house. For years it struggled in the shade of a Livistona decora and an Archo alexandrae and was prone to scale. But those palms are now tall enough to let the sunshine in, so my Cham. is a bit happier.

I planted my C.h. Del Rio over the weekend in a planter bed on my new property. It will received no irrigation, only rain or hand-watering. And I rest assured it will laugh at my winters.

Chamaerops humilis Del Rio

Seriously I dont see any difference between vulcano species...

It is like trying to consider 3 different species of phoenix canariensis from a canariensis grown in north coastal spain (quite slower growth, a bit wider trunk from (I guess) excesive rainfall, and darker fronds from lack of too sunny days), a canariensis grown in it native habitat with faster growth (and a bit slender trunks) and a canariensis grown in full sun in a tourist place near the sea in south spain (probably with light green leaves from a nutrition deficiency, some slight damage from too salty winds, etc).

My opinion is that is going overboard making so much subspecies with so minimal differences (mainly due to culture conditions)

Interesting points Jaime, and they are at least partially undisputably correct, but on the other side, and this can not be overseen, there are also horticultural differences among the varieties growing all in the same place. I mean other varieties are very susceptible to leaf fungus, other are very slow growing and other are solitary, while most of them sucker prolifically, just to mention some constant differencies.

I agree with both Konstantinos and Jaime; there is an obvious difference between Chamaerops humilis arborescens and clumping forms, between humilis and cerifera, humilis and vulcano. In humilis and vulcano we also see normal green leaves en whitepowdered leaves, in humilis big leaves and very small leaves, long and short petioles. In French literature a variety "duplicifolia" is recoqnized (photo), but this caracteristic in my plants is also seen in cerifera. So, Chamaerops humilis is a very variable palm.

As I stated in my last post Im talking about the vulcano variety... As you can see in my photos the differences between chamaerops (humilis, cerifera, vulcano,arborescent, etc) are very clear...

On the other hand, my ch. humilis var. vulcano leaves would be less dark if grown in south spain due to more sun exposition and lack of rainy days, but they still would be the same chamaerops humilis var. vulcano... You can get the idea, just looking the famous dypsis decipiens in ventura and some of the decipiens grown in the more rainy florida...

Meg, like the new palm. Good luck with it. It is definitely a form I would have zeroed in on as well. Now that our hardscape is just about finished we have been palm shopping and I have my eye on a few C. humilis' myself. I tend to be drawn to the more compact version of palms in general and think we may have tagged a var. vulcano for one of our locations on a recent nursery trip.

Wimmie, I was looking through other forum threads on C. humilis and saw one of your earliest threads with some photos of your garden. Your vulcano has done really well. Very attractive palm. BTW we also have tagged a Yucca rostrata so found it interesting to see yours in that early photo. Quite the trunk on it.

Edited November 24, 201213 yr by WestCoastGal

You are right, Debbie. That vulcano is growing quite well for a Chamaerops in a pot and as far as the Yucca rostrata is concerned, it is prooved to be very hardy; all my Trachycarpus palms planted in the ground died last winter (minus 20 C), but the Yucca did't show any damage!

Regards,

Wim.

We planted my little guy in a raised bed about a week ago.

Chamaerops humilis "Del Rio"