I found these awesome pictures of Pseudophoenix in habitat on Long Key from 1922. Taken by J.K. Small, the caption reads "Two dozen palms remain in grove where there were several hundred when discovered forty years ago." Sad, especially since none of the originals survive on Long Key these days.

Here is the link to the archives

http://www.floridamemory.com/solr-search/results/?q=collection%3A%22Florida%20Photographic%20Collection%22%20AND%20subject%3A%22Pseudophoenix%20sargentii%20sargentii%22&searchbox=1&query=Pseudophoenix%20sargentii%20sargentii&year=&gallery=0&search-type=

Thanks Steve. Nice old photos. Has anyone tried to re establish Pseudophoenix populations in the Keys?

-Randy

I saw a couple juveniles at Long Key State Park which presumably had been reintroduced. I assume this was near the location of the old grove in the pictures

That's a interesting post,

Many thanks , Steve

I wish we can see more often pictures of the past, as I posted last year with srilankan old photographs.

I may have transplanted some of those ....As time has past I have purchased big and noticeably old Pseudo's from homes in the Keys. Some may have been transplanted from the original groves and sold to those homeowners. That is the same thing we do now with Sabal! Thrinax, Coccothrinax, and Leucothrinax are still sold from the wild too!

Thanks Steve. Nice old photos. Has anyone tried to re establish Pseudophoenix populations in the Keys?

-Randy

I forgot, Principes published a couple articles on this, I wrote a paper for a class at UF and used them as sources. Here's part of the article from the IPS site.

http://www.palms.org/principes/1995/sargentii.htm

I may have transplanted some of those ....As time has past I have purchased big and noticeably old Pseudo's from homes in the Keys. Some may have been transplanted from the original groves and sold to those homeowners. That is the same thing we do now with Sabal! Thrinax, Coccothrinax, and Leucothrinax are still sold from the wild too!

Yeah makes sense for Sabal, and the thatch palms if and when they're just going to be cleared for development anyway. Sad that Pseudophoenix had only a few isolated populations and that they were over harvested to the point of not being able to regenerate naturally

I go on the theory that Pseudophoenix was placed in Florida by early humans in any case. Good food source close to the coast.

That's true! The Spanish were known for releasing pigs in an area to come back to as needed, and both Pseudophoenix and Roystonea seeds were widely used as livestock feed "back in the day"

Fantastic! These old photos are exactly what I've been looking for.

how many years to reach this size? (https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/49789)

Mine are "almost" that size

Wow. I was just in your neck of the woods this Christmas. My great aunt recently moved from South Bay to Brandon to live with her sister. (She's my great aunt through having married my now-deceased great uncle.) The neighborhood they live in is full of large oaks, and I saw very few tropical plants. I just assumed that Brandon was a cold zone. May I ask whether you planted it as a young plant or whether you purchased it as a larger specimen? How long has it been in the ground in its present location? If it was a larger specimen, do you know whether it was originally collected from the wild (perhaps with a stop or two in private gardens) or whether it was seed-grown in a private garden? And, if you don't mind the request, can you post some photos? Sorry for all the questions :-)

Yes. Brandon gets cold.

Officially z9a, but I truly push it to the limit.

I was being sarcastic BTW, mine are nowhere near that size. Pseudophoenix is by no means a speedy plant.

My first few Pseudos were bought from MikeEvans in StPete as one gallon plants... They were pencil thin seedlings about two, three feet tall about six years ago.

Theyre now about seven feet tall and maybe a inch or more thick.

FastForward couple years, I run into a guy with ten, 7gal plants for sale...

They were all thick as a tennis ball.

Those are now all with wood, and over ten feet tall.

My suggestion would be to look for a larger one to buy... Ive got three trunkin ones in 25gal containers for the right price...

Believe me, I'll be on the lookout for the largest specimens I can afford :-)

Here are two of my largest ones out front:

...sprinkler for scale

very cool palm. Do you have to cover them in your area, or is the oak canopy enough during the winters there?

I rely on the oaks.

Do you think I'd need to plant some canopy trees before putting some p. sargentii in the ground in a 10a climate?

This thread is like a holy grail for me. I've always wanted more info about the native population apart from Elliott Key. Thank you!

Does anyone have color photos of P. sargentii in habitat in Florida?

8 hours ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

Does anyone have color photos of P. sargentii in habitat in Florida?

I've got one

The taller specimen in the b & w photo is well over 100 years old.  I have a specimen planted from a 3G in 1999 that has 3 feet of trunk now.  The speed at which it produces leaves has picked up but the overall growth is very slow.   It had only mild tip burn as a result of the 2010 freeze.  I still contest it is the most cold hardy crownshaft palm around.

34 minutes ago, Zeeth said:

I've got one

Is this on Elliott Key?

8 minutes ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

Is this on Elliott Key?

Yeah.

I know that the population has been reintroduced to long key and sands key, but I never got the chance to try finding them.

I'll also note that seeds from the Elliot Key population have been known to produce a palm very similar to Pseudophoenix sargentii var. navasana when grown in cultivation (fast growing with widely space trunk rings).

Here's an example of ones grown at Fairchild:

Here's another one that Ken Johnson recently transplanted (pic is pre-tranplant). It's 28 years old:

22 minutes ago, Zeeth said:

Yeah.

I know that the population has been reintroduced to long key and sands key, but I never got the chance to try finding them.

I'll also note that seeds from the Elliot Key population have been known to produce a palm very similar to Pseudophoenix sargentii var. navasana when grown in cultivation (fast growing with widely space trunk rings).

Here's an example of ones grown at Fairchild:

Here's another one that Ken Johnson recently transplanted (pic is pre-tranplant). It's 28 years old:

Fantastic photos! This palm is hard to beat.

33 minutes ago, SubTropicRay said:

The taller specimen in the b & w photo is well over 100 years old.  I have a specimen planted from a 3G in 1999 that has 3 feet of trunk now.  The speed at which it produces leaves has picked up but the overall growth is very slow.   It had only mild tip burn as a result of the 2010 freeze.  I still contest it is the most cold hardy crownshaft palm around.

Are there any of likely Florida provenance of that size in cultivation?

5 hours ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

Are there any of likely Florida provenance of that size in cultivation?

I've seen a few very tall specimens along some alleys in old town Key West. 

10 minutes ago, SubTropicRay said:

I've seen a few very tall specimens along some alleys in old town Key West. 

 If you get a chance, I'd love to see you post some Google seeet views.

They're not the tallest, but here are a few from Key West:

3 hours ago, Zeeth said:

They're not the tallest, but here are a few from Key West:

Wonderful! Did these grow to size in situ, or were they dug the ut of the wild decades ago?

I'm not really sure to be honest. They were just ones that I saw while walking around, so I snapped some pics. 

Here are two P. sargentii I found in the Rockland Hammock habitat on Long Key. I know there are some taller ones at the coastal berm habitat, but it's not accessible from the trail, so I wasn't able to check. 

Love them! 

This is a great thread, seems like I look through it every time it gets bumped, great habitat (and other) shots a magnificent palm. 

On 10/21/2016, 8:33:04, Zeeth said:

1 minute ago, Xerarch said:

This is a great thread, seems like I look through it every time it gets bumped, great habitat (and other) shots a magnificent palm. 

Agree!

Behind my house in the banana river there are many small islands. Most have little solid ground and are just mangrove flats. But others have enough high ground for trees. I have considered growing from seed many small Florida native palms and introducing them on the islands for the fun of it. Palms like pseudophoenix, thrinax radiata, coccothrinax argentata, etc. might survive there with little supplemental food and water. I would love to do all kinds of palms but I think some people would object to nonnatives being placed on such a habitat. I hope I don't run the risk of someone pulling up the Florida natives because they are out of their native range. If I actually do such a project it would be long term as those trees take forever from seed to a size large enough to plant out in a tough environment. If it ever comes to fruition I will let you know. 

Definitely post here if you decide to try that. I'm trying a similar thing going on here with success so far.

Here is our Pseudiphoenix sargentii growing in upslope South Kona, HI

3 hours ago, Al in Kona said:

Here is our Pseudiphoenix sargentii growing in upslope South Kona, HI

Stunning