Century old royal palms in Palmetto, Florida.

[Zeeth]

This is at the Haley house in Palmetto. It's apparently not open to the public, which is a bummer. I was able to get a nice pic from the front gate though.

 

Tall and old royal palms aren't only found in South Florida. 

[User00]

royal palm always gives luxury look to buildings 

[RedRabbit]

They look great, thanks for sharing. Are these the ones I always see when coming across the Skyway? I know there are a cluster of older royals just across the bridge in Manatee County.

[Zeeth]

22 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

They look great, thanks for sharing. Are these the ones I always see when coming across the Skyway? I know there are a cluster of older royals just across the bridge in Manatee County.

Yup, these are the royals that you see from 275!

[RedRabbit]

31 minutes ago, Zeeth said:

Yup, these are the royals that you see from 275!

Cool, I always wondered about the Royals in that area. I'm not surprised they've made it there that long, it seems like a great climate and big royals are pretty hardy anyway... I've wondered why there don't seem to be any natural royal hammocks north of big cypress, it seems like there should be but perhaps that 1899 freeze wiped them out.

[Zeeth]

Just now, RedRabbit said:

Cool, I always wondered about the Royals in that area. I'm not surprised they've made it there that long, it seems like a great climate and big royals are pretty hardy anyway... I've wondered why there don't seem to be any natural royal hammocks north of big cypress, it seems like there should be but perhaps that 1899 freeze wiped them out.

There are some growing wild at Emerson point preserve not far from the royals in the picture above. I documented them in this thread:

I'm not sure how the 1899 freeze affected the royals in the area. The Reasoner nursery was established by that point though, and they had to go to the everglades to get their initial stock in 1884, so they weren't naturally present in the area back then. 

[spockvr6]

Zeeth-

Nice photos!  Ive seen those palms (the tops of them anyway) a gazzilion times but never from ground level.

There are others similar to those on the NW area of Bradenton (Palma Sola area).  My aunt/uncle lived there and their street was lined with giant old craggly looking Royals that looked turn of the century old (1900 not 2000)     Of course I have no idea how old they really were, but they were definitely ancient and on their way to shall we say full maturity (back to whence they came.....)

[Eric in Orlando]

Wow, those are some awesome specimens!

Looks like that house was built in 1909.

 

[Zeeth]

59 minutes ago, spockvr6 said:

Zeeth-

Nice photos!  Ive seen those palms (the tops of them anyway) a gazzilion times but never from ground level.

There are others similar to those on the NW area of Bradenton (Palma Sola area).  My aunt/uncle lived there and their street was lined with giant old craggly looking Royals that looked turn of the century old (1900 not 2000)     Of course I have no idea how old they really were, but they were definitely ancient and on their way to shall we say full maturity (back to whence they came.....)

Yeah there are super old royals scattered throughout Manatee county. Reasoner's nursery first started offering them for sale in 1884, so there are plenty that are 100 years old and older. The ones at the Haley house are some of the nicer ones in my opinion. 

[RedRabbit]

6 hours ago, Zeeth said:

There are some growing wild at Emerson point preserve not far from the royals in the picture above. I documented them in this thread:

I'm not sure how the 1899 freeze affected the royals in the area. The Reasoner nursery was established by that point though, and they had to go to the everglades to get their initial stock in 1884, so they weren't naturally present in the area back then. 

You really know your Royal history. 

Thanks for the tip on Emerson point, I'll have to make a trip there sometime.

[Palmaceae]

I remember seeing those royals coming across the brand new Skyway bridge in the early 80's, on my way to Reasoner's nursery.

[Yunder Wækraus]

10 hours ago, Zeeth said:

This is at the Haley house in Palmetto. It's apparently not open to the public, which is a bummer. I was able to get a nice pic from the front gate though.

 

Tall and old royal palms aren't only found in South Florida. 

How tall do you reckon those are? 75'?

 

[Palmaceae]

12 hours ago, Palmaceae said:

I remember seeing those royals coming across the brand new Skyway bridge in the early 80's, on my way to Reasoner's nursery.

Actually now thinking about it, it was on the old Skyway bridge going to Bradenton. We moved to St Pete in June of 1980 and one month before that is when the ship hit the south bound side of the bridge.  So after that we only had the north side of the bridge to drive on until the new bridge was built, which opened in 1987.

[Zeeth]

11 hours ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

How tall do you reckon those are? 75'?

 

Sounds about right. 

[Yunder Wækraus]

2 hours ago, Zeeth said:

Sounds about right. 

Can they get to 100'? (Perhaps lightning and hurricanes are too much for that to happen in FL.)

[Zeeth]

7 hours ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

Can they get to 100'? (Perhaps lightning and hurricanes are too much for that to happen in FL.)

I went to the Fakahatchee strand today to check out the royal palms growing in the wild. Most of the tall ones seemed about the height of the ones I posted above, but some were probably close to 100'.

 

[Yunder Wækraus]

On 3/1/2016, 6:51:41, Zeeth said:

I went to the Fakahatchee strand today to check out the royal palms growing in the wild. Most of the tall ones seemed about the height of the ones I posted above, but some were probably close to 100'.

 

Jealous. I've still never been there :-( I looks amazing!

[Yunder Wækraus]

On 3/1/2016, 6:51:41, Zeeth said:

I went to the Fakahatchee strand today to check out the royal palms growing in the wild. Most of the tall ones seemed about the height of the ones I posted above, but some were probably close to 100'.

 

I still haven't been. When is a good time to go? How easy is it to access the larger specimens? These palms are inexpressibly magnificent at all stages of life.

[Zeeth]

34 minutes ago, Yunder Wækraus said:

I still haven't been. When is a good time to go? How easy is it to access the larger specimens? These palms are inexpressibly magnificent at all stages of life.

It depends on what you like. Summer is the best time to see the orchids blooming (and get seeds from the royals), but the mosquitoes are awful and the humidity in the swamp is oppressive. 

In the fall/winter/spring, the temperature is nice and it's not very buggy (I didn't need bug spray but mosquitoes usually don't bother me unless they're thick, so you might still need some). The problem is that the orchids usually aren't blooming and the alligators are all sunning themselves on the trails. They aren't aggressive though, so you can just walk around them if you're not afraid.

The big, fat royals are accessible through the K2 trail. The national champion is on this trail due to it's thickness, but it's height actually seemed shorter than the royals in Palmetto when I saw it in person. GPS coordinates (and a picture) can be found on this website:

http://championtrees.freshfromflorida.com/home.mvc/Detail/924

The super tall royals are off of the east main trail. I would recommend you bring waders to go see those up close. The picture I took was from the trail (which is actually easier to walk than the K2, but with more alligators), but the palms are growing in the swamp, so if you want to see them up close in person, you'll have to walk through swamp.

I would also recommend taking a 4wd vehicle on the Janes memorial scenic route, or bringing mountain bikes, parking at the entrance and biking in. It's only a few miles into the trail, but you can only go walking speed due to the terrible condition of the road, so it takes about an hour once you get to the entrance of the park.

Check out my travel log of the area if you want to more easily trace my steps: