Yesterday I was at Busch Gardens in Tampa for the first time in a few years. I was walking past the entrance on my way in when I noticed this Everglades palm (Acoelorrhaphe wrightii) growing in the right hand corner. 

I thought it looked familiar and to my surprise I had seen this exact tree’s picture just a few nights ago on Palmpedia.  

Given that it was a very healthy specimen growing for a good number of years in my climate, I decided to take a closer look. I saw some low hanging seeds and plucked them off ninja style. Now I’ve got a few Acoelorrhaphe seeds I’m looking to germinate. 

My question is are any of these seeds still viable to grow? I’m not terribly familiar with this species outside the basics. The seeds look kind of dried up and discolored. Are these good to go? Do I need to clean the shells off of them first? Or are these seeds too far gone to consider. Any advice you can provide would be helpful.     

 

 

Hello there,

 

clean the shells, put them in a glass of water and if they sink within two/three days to the ground, they should be good to go.

 

best regards

 

 

I'm pretty sure whatever you have collected is not the seeds of Acoelorrhaphe. This palm has their seed on large sprays and the seeds are small and round.

 

Regards Neil

27 minutes ago, Neil C said:

I'm pretty sure whatever you have collected is not the seeds of Acoelorrhaphe. This palm has their seed on large sprays and the seeds are small and round.

 

Regards Neil

yes

Acoelorrhaphe’s infructescence looks like this:

10 hours ago, ThePalmNovice said:

Yesterday I was at Busch Gardens in Tampa for the first time in a few years. I was walking past the entrance on my way in when I noticed this Everglades palm (Acoelorrhaphe wrightii) growing in the right hand corner.

I thought it looked familiar and to my surprise I had seen this exact tree’s picture just a few nights ago on Palmpedia. 

Given that it was a very healthy specimen growing for a good number of years in my climate, I decided to take a closer look. I saw some low hanging seeds and plucked them off ninja style. Now I’ve got a few Acoelorrhaphe seeds I’m looking to germinate.

My question is are any of these seeds still viable to grow? I’m not terribly familiar with this species outside the basics. The seeds look kind of dried up and discolored. Are these good to go? Do I need to clean the shells off of them first? Or are these seeds too far gone to consider. Any advice you can provide would be helpful.    

Your fruits look to me like a species of ivy (Hedera).

Ah shoot! So those were probably the seeds to the plant growing underneath the Everglades palm, not the Acoelorrhaphe wrightii's.  Darn, I was looking forward to growing that. Well at least I asked you guys here first. I would have been really disappointed had I gone through with planting these expecting a nice Acoelorrhaphe, only to have ivy sprout out of it. Thanks for the help everyone. At least now I know what to look for. I can always try again next time I go there. 

Edited February 24, 20179 yr by ThePalmNovice