My friend Eric Hupperts, who's a horticulturist at the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley, took a bike ride recently in Alameda in search of an Andean wax palm that another friend had given us cross streets for.

 (Alameda is an older suburb on big, flat island in San Francisco Bay.) 

Here's the video he sent me showing the palm. Not a lot of trunked ceroxylons in the Bay Area.

 

22 minutes ago, JasonD said:

My friend Eric Hupperts, who's a horticulturist at the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley, took a bike ride recently in Alameda in search of an Andean wax palm that another friend had given us cross streets for.

 

 (Alameda is an older suburb on big, flat island in San Francisco Bay.) 

Here's the video he sent me showing the palm. Not a lot of trunked ceroxylons in the Bay Area.

 

Nice video! Back in 2018 at a meeting of the NorCal Palm Soc. I took these pictures at the host's home in Berkeley:

 

This longer version of the video gives some neighborhood context. Mostly Craftsman houses from the early 20th century, when a lot of people were probably moving to Alameda in the decade-plus after the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire of 1906.

Here are some single Phoenix reclinata cuties with a big old Phoenix canariensis in the background.  Phoenix reclinata is not a common species in the Bay Area, despite being viable in many areas. But it's a tough sell as a young, spiny clump.
Alameda has a lot of big old Canaries. And very tall Washingtonia robustas. The climate is cool and maritime, but somewhat warmer than San Francisco. It's right on the bay.

Canal-side living on filled land, areas of the island added on using dredging spoils.

Back on the original part of the island a monkey-puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana, from the mountains of central Chile) grows in front of an old house.

It would be a puzzle for a monkey to figure out how to climb a tree with such sharp, knife-like leaves covering every inch of the crown.

There's a long, shallow beach on the southwest shore of Alameda Island, where kitesurfers catch the reliable winds blowing from the bay onshore. 
I'd love to see lots more palms planted in Alameda. Growing in the flat landscape, they make a beautiful impression against the sky and add a vertical dimension that the far-off hills can't quite do.

Stunning palm! Do you know how old it may be? (The Ceroxylon) 

Edited May 13, 20206 yr by Plantasexoticas

4 hours ago, Plantasexoticas said:

Stunning palm! Do you know how old it may be? (The Ceroxylon) 

I'd expect it's 25-30 years in the ground, based on when other ones reached trunking stage in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bogotá by the Bay