This tree is about 2.5 years old from a seedling. I found 2 strange seedlings underneath a Christmas Palm popping up amongst a couple hundred standard-looking Christmas seedlings. I planted this one at a customer's house (below). We have ID's it as an Adonidia merrillii (formerly Veitchia merrillii) x Veitchia arecina. Notice the heavy ramenta on crownshaft and thick, overlapping leaflets. Has anyone ever seen one before... maybe at Nong Nooch?

Justin i want one, very beautiful palm!

That's a pretty palm. Get busy hybridizing......

That's very nice, Adonidia doesn't have much cold tolerance... Any idea of the cold tolerance of this palm?? It's a beauty!!

Len, that's the plan!

Kenny, no idea of cold tolerance until we get our next bad winter here. Probably 5-10deg more cold hardy than standard Adonidia merrillii I would think. I presume it would grow in SoCal and other warm Mediterranean climates. Plus, look at the growth speed! That tree is only 2.5 years old from a seedling!

That is awesome, I always wondered if Adonidia would cross with Veitchia !

Very nice!

Hmm, I have both of those parents growing right next to each other, I wonder if the seed was unusual in any way like rather large for an Adonidia. Nice looking palm though. I do like both of the parents as well.

Eric, If you think about it, Christmas Palms used to be lumped in with Montgomery palms (i.e. Veitchia merrillii and Veitchia arecina). So, genetically they probably have similar chromosome counts in their genomes resulting in a propensity to hybridize together. We are going to try to manually cross-pollinate the parents..

Redant, The seed is rarely unusual looking in my experience; so that is not a good way to tell. Except for Wodveitchia seed which as two beige stripes on top. Hybrids are most often discovered as being variegated or popping out taller than all the other seedlings around them- as was the case here.

Very nice. And thankfully it's not variegated.

Len, that's the plan!

Kenny, no idea of cold tolerance until we get our next bad winter here. Probably 5-10deg more cold hardy than standard Adonidia merrillii I would think. I presume it would grow in SoCal and other warm Mediterranean climates. Plus, look at the growth speed! That tree is only 2.5 years old from a seedling!

Out of curiosity, why do you think it'll be hardier? Neither parent seems very hardy, and Adonidia seems to handle our winters somewhat better than Veitchia, so is your estimate based only on hybrid vigor?

This tree is about 2.5 years old from a seedling. I found 2 strange seedlings underneath a Christmas Palm popping up amongst a couple hundred standard-looking Christmas seedlings. I planted this one at a customer's house (below). We have ID's it as an Adonidia merrillii (formerly Veitchia merrillii) x Veitchia arecina. Notice the heavy ramenta on crownshaft and thick, overlapping leaflets. Has anyone ever seen one before... maybe at Nong Nooch?

I'm no geneticist, but... If you got two hybrid seedlings from the same Adonidia seed parent, I'd definitely be using this one in your crosses. Given the thousands of these trees growing in close proximity to each other (in SoFla alone) that never produce hybrid offspring, I would suspect that this is not an easily achieved feat.

Makes at least as much sense as people who line up to buy lottery tickets from stores that have sold multiple winning tickets... Best of luck.

V. arecina seems to be a bit hardier than Adonidia, especially to prolonged cool. It is the hardiest Veitchia species.

Keith, Yes, my estimate is solely based on it being a hybrid. It should be as hardy or hardier than Veitchia. Veitchia grow in SoCal, but not Adonidia. I would say that makes this a good candidate for a SoCal garden.

Fastfeet, Yes, I would love to make more off the same mother tree, but I'm not sure which one produced it because there are 3 of them next to each other and they're in a customer's yard. We should have better success with our own Adonidia as long as we emasculate the inflorescence in order to increase our odds. I also have a Wodyetia x Adonidia hybrid that was made out of Thailand. I was told they only get one or two seedlings out of hundreds or thousands of seeds sewn. But that is an intergeneric cross, whereas what we have here is essentially an interspecific cross.

Now it would be cool to take this hybrid and cross it with Wodyetia. or take a Wodyetia X Veitchia hybrid and cross it with Adonida.

Has anyone crossed Adonidia with Wodyetia ?

Eric, That's the first thing I said when I saw it: "I wonder if I could back-cross with Wodyetia!?"

I already have a "Christmas Tail" palm (Wodyetia x Adonidia golden). (See earlier reply)

JD

Now it would be cool to take this hybrid and cross it with Wodyetia. or take a Wodyetia X Veitchia hybrid and cross it with Adonida.

Has anyone crossed Adonidia with Wodyetia ?

Does XWodveitchia produce viable pollen or ovaries?

Fastfeat, Yes, I know of two growers who have F2 Wodveitchia seedlings (probably back-crossed with something else in their gardens).

Here is my Wodyetia x Adonidia merrillii 'golden'

I just did adonidia x wodyetia a few days ago.