Phoenicophorium borsigianum

[realarch]

Slow but steady with this beautiful palm. Full sun, good drainage, and plenty of water makes it happy. 

In many respects, other than the stilt roots, it looks like it shares similarities with Verschaffeltia. Makes sense, but 

that's just an observation.  This one was planted about five years ago from a two gallon pot. 

 

Tim

 

[realarch]

Here's the new leaf, which was taken a couple years ago. Almost impossible to photograph these days. 

Tim

 

[Monòver]

Wow!!!

[Pedro 65]

A very Ancient beautiful PalmTim      Pete 

[User00]

nice shots 

[Cindy Adair]

Tim I missed this topic before. What a beauty!

I have three, none as big as yours. Mine have been subjected to being obtained as tiny seedlings years ago and rudely plopped in the ground at my old farm only to be dug up and put in a pot here last year. Now they are recovering from too much sun planted post hurricane Maria, but seem content in (I hope) their final location! 

One has the really dark new leaf like yours does and the other two have the bright orange accents lacking in the one with the dark leaf. Has any one else noticed this?

First I show a view looking down on the one with the dark new leaf in the foreground.

Next there is my largest one, still tiny compared to Tim's. Perhaps I just don't recall the color of its new leaves, but that seems unlikely. 

I see no hint of orange in the dark leaved one except some bits of my orange clay.

Next the underneath side and a closeup of the stem plus more leaf shots.

My smallest shows the orange too.

Easy to see on this one.

Tim, I would love to see an update on yours and would appreciate any comments from anyone on the difference in colors on mine.

 

 

[John hovancsek]

I just got 2 of these amazing palms. I am hoping they will do good in my new garden.. Fingers crossed 

[Elvis Cruz]

Phoenicophorium borsigianum is especially beautiful as a juvenile.  It's one of my favorites, with the orange petioles and stripe along the leaf edges.

The Seychelles have iron-rich soil (orange dirt), so an Fe supplement may be helpful.

[Jeff Searle]

So,so very nice. I just wish they were not so cold sensitive in our area.

Jeff

[Missi]

Wait...I've never heard of this species getting dark red new leaves! That's STUNNING! The ones that have that characteristic seem to lack the orange characteristics, though! Can someone explain this? Thank you in advance!

[realarch]

Wow, blast from the past! Thanks for the bump. 

Palm looks much the same although a bit larger. Had a case of that black sooty mold and needed to trim some fronds, so it's looking a bit sparse lately. Should be back nice and full in a year or so. 

Beautiful palm.

Tim

[palmfriend]

An impressive palm. I have seen one in a large dome for for tropical plants in Tokyo (Yume-no-shima) - an absulote eye-catcher. 

Thanks a lot for sharing, 

Lars

 

[Moose]

On ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2018‎ ‎1‎:‎42‎:‎16‎, realarch said:

Wow, blast from the past! Thanks for the bump. 

Palm looks much the same although a bit larger. Had a case of that black sooty mold and needed to trim some fronds, so it's looking a bit sparse lately. Should be back nice and full in a year or so. 

Beautiful palm.

Tim

Do they remain spikey with age?

[Brad52]

I just picked up a very nice 7 gal of this and I am wondering how tall I should anticipate it getting at my place in nearly coastal Puna? I forgot to ask Jeff when I got it, I saw 50’ on one website and here I saw Rick say he has not seen 30’ outside it’s native digs.  I’m hoping for less than 30’ but don’t want to be wrong on site selection.

[Frond-friend42]

Seedlings are pretty too. So much orange!

[Rick Kelley]

12 hours ago, Brad52 said:

I just picked up a very nice 7 gal of this and I am wondering how tall I should anticipate it getting at my place in nearly coastal Puna? I forgot to ask Jeff when I got it, I saw 50’ on one website and here I saw Rick say he has not seen 30’ outside it’s native digs.  I’m hoping for less than 30’ but don’t want to be wrong on site selection.

The Hilo zoo should reopen in the next month. They have a big one that is maybe 30 years old and about 20 ft tall. You might also visit UHH palm garden. I think they have one.

[Brad52]

OK, great info Rick, sounds like in my lifetime it will not reach 20'!

[realarch]

Well, here’s an update. Grown a bit the last few years. 

Tim

[Brad52]

Takes some horizontal space I see.  So a slow grower that gets wide on the way up.

[John hovancsek]

I will admit that the one at the Hilo zoo is amazing. It it so impressive 

[realarch]

On 5/22/2021 at 4:26 AM, Frond-friend42 said:

Seedlings are pretty too. So much orange!

Boy, looks so similar to Verschaffeltia, you could easily mistake the ID. Speaking of Verschaffeltia, we might need a new thread.

Tim

[mike in kurtistown]

Here's another in east Hawaii Island with tall grass, orange 5-gal bucket, and untrimmed old and dying leaves. Planted from 2-gal pot in November 2013. Full sun and lots of wind.

[bgl]

There are 3 Borsigianum phoenicophorium in my garden,  and no matter how much I fertilize, the leaves always look yellow-ish after a while. Thanks to the comment from Elvis in this thread, which I missed so long ago, now I know why! I will pick up some Fe to add to my iron-starved plants! Thanks PalmTalkers!

Edit: Oops! This was Kim posting while borrowing Bo's laptop! 

[WaianaeCrider]

On 5/24/2021 at 10:42 AM, mike in kurtistown said:

Here's another in east Hawaii Island with tall grass, orange 5-gal bucket, and untrimmed old and dying leaves. Planted from 2-gal pot in November 2013. Full sun and lots of wind.

I just received a 1 gal from Jeff today.  Can it go right in the sun or pick a semi shady spot where I can cut down the shade trees in a year or to?

 

[mike in kurtistown]

Steve, that looks like a BIG one-gal. I would probably feel OK with planting out at that size, with perhaps some blocks or rocks to protect it from getting run over, or a flag to mark its position in grass and weeds. However, the question is what kind of light conditions it has been grown in. It looks a little stretched, perhaps it was in a relatively low light place in the nursery. If so, I would invest in a few weeks of progressive sun hardening. My shadehouses have 70% at one end, 50 % in the middle, and 30% at the lightest end. I move palms, even naturally full-sun palms, into progressively higher light levels in the shadehouse before introducing them into full sun outdoors.

[WaianaeCrider]

6 hours ago, mike in kurtistown said:

Steve, that looks like a BIG one-gal. I would probably feel OK with planting out at that size, with perhaps some blocks or rocks to protect it from getting run over, or a flag to mark its position in grass and weeds. However, the question is what kind of light conditions it has been grown in. It looks a little stretched, perhaps it was in a relatively low light place in the nursery. If so, I would invest in a few weeks of progressive sun hardening. My shadehouses have 70% at one end, 50 % in the middle, and 30% at the lightest end. I move palms, even naturally full-sun palms, into progressively higher light levels in the shadehouse before introducing them into full sun outdoors.

Mahalo Mike.  That's a cool shade house idea.  I have one w/60% but that shade cloth is about 40 years old and my not offer as much as it once did.  Another for 30 and one for 20.  Those are for my orchids and are there just to keep leaves and other crap off the orchids rather than provide shade.  The 11 fro Jeff went in to the darkest corner of the 60% shade house and will be there for perhaps a few months and I try to figure where to plant.  I have a few spots where haole koa provides shade and two others where I planted papayas "just for temporary shade" and some fruit as a benefit.  LOL

[palmfriend]

Hi,

I got a notice about someone's reaction and pulled this old thread up...

First thing I got aware of - I haven't posted a photo of the P. borsigianum when I mentioned the Yumeshima dome where

I saw this species for the first time...

What an impressive palm!

Here are my own (seed grown) two lads, being really slow but doing (somehow) well...

Glad to have them - 

 

Lars

 

[realarch]

Here’s a recent update photo, which made me realize it’s a fairly slow grower. From comments above, the leaves are prone to yellowing and spotting, so I just use a locally obtained palm fertilizer with micro nutrients. Takes a bit of time, but it makes a big difference. 

Yellow / gold color leaves seem to be so common, that friends growing these think that’s what they’re supposed to look like.

I need to get that shovel out and snap another photo. 

Tim 

[Brad52]

Mine got beat up in the drought.

[Rick Kelley]

Mine is roughly 12-14 ft tall after ten years in the ground, but is definitely suffering from a bad case of Orange Leaf syndrome. I think I give all my palms adequate fertilizer, but in the past year I have started giving this one an extra handful of fertilizer in between regular applications. It will probably be a year or two before I can tell if that helps.  This is the only palm I have with an orange leaf problem, so this is an unusually needy species.  At least how I'm growing it.  I do really like this species and have seen some 30 ft tall specimens growing in other gardens which were plenty impressive.  I recently planted a little brother visible at lower right.  Another frustration I have with mine is a failure to produce fruit.  It has been blooming frequently for several years, but never sets fruit.  I've seen larger trees holding 4-6 inflorescences where only one or two were densely packed with hundreds of fruit while the others were totally bare. I have no idea what causes such an all or none outcome.  I suppose it is possible that these other trees have 100% success setting fruit and the bare ones are just older and have dropped their fruit, but I don't think that is the explanation.  It is a much loved species here in Hawaii, so I would like to propagate it, if I ever get some seed.

[Brad52]

Mine hasn't had the spotting problem too much and I mostly ignore it, at best I over feed it 1x per year.  Makes me wonder if less rainfall here helps?  Dunno...

[D. Morrowii]

Heres a couple I’ve had for a little over 2 years. Purchased from Floribunda as 1 gallons. I left them out in my semi protected tented pergola last year and it took all summer before they started to look good again. I plan to move them into the garage on cold nights this year. I wish I could grow them in the ground here they are such a pretty palm.  I wonder how long they will last growing in pots? 

Edited January 5, 2024 by D. Morrowii
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