Palmageddon Aftermath Photo Thread

[Austinpalm]

Did a quick walk thru the neighborhood.  Here are just a few photos I took. These were all taken just south of West Oleander (Bay side of SPI). Still early, but this is what is showing so far.

Photo Description

1 Royal palm - typical damage for most large royals at this point.

2 Coconut palm - fronds are fried but petiols still look good.

3 Bottle palm 

4 Christmas palms 

5 Royal palm with foxtail to the right - typical damage for larger foxtails.

6 & 7 Coconut palm

8 Royal palms - typical damage for royals of this size

9 Christmas palm - largest I have seen personally on the island. 

10 Veitchia arecina? - In my neighbors back yard

Edited February 19, 2021 by Austinpalm

[boaterboat]

1 hour ago, Hombre de Palmas said:

Did your power stay on?  Looks like you were able to run your pool and maybe that's some consolation?

 My sympathies.

Yes, we were fortunate enough to not have lost power and all pool equipment seems fine. There have been quite a few pool and frozen pipe issues around here! We are definitely grateful to just have lost palms, although they hold a lot of sentimental value for us. We actually hired a crane to move a couple of them when we discovered our fence had to be moved. 

[Austinpalm]

A few more pix of some palms and other tropicals in the same general area as the last post of pix.

1 sea grape

2 schefflera - all schefflera's look like this one.

3 sea hibiscus - typical for sea hibiscus

4 small Dypsis lutescens - all D. lutescens fronds are fried but larger plants still have green trunks.

5 Caryota mitis 

6 larger sea grape - most sea grape are showing little damage at this point

7 Ficus elastica

8 Ficus sp.

 

[Hombre de Palmas]

17 minutes ago, boaterboat said:

Yes, we were fortunate enough to not have lost power and all pool equipment seems fine. There have been quite a few pool and frozen pipe issues around here! We are definitely grateful to just have lost palms, although they hold a lot of sentimental value for us. We actually hired a crane to move a couple of them when we discovered our fence had to be moved. 

I'm happy about the pool and sad about your palms.

[WestCoastGal]

Unfortunately the ugliness caused by the freezing temps won’t really become evident for some time still.

[Hombre de Palmas]

4 minutes ago, Austinpalm said:

A few more pix of some palms and other tropicals in the same general area as the last post of pix.

1 sea grape

2 schefflera - all schefflera's look like this one.

3 sea hibiscus - typical for sea hibiscus

4 small Dypsis lutescens - all D. lutescens fronds are fried but larger plants still have green trunks.

5 Caryota mitis 

6 larger sea grape - most sea grape are showing little damage at this point

7 Ficus elastica

8 Ficus sp.

 

Thanks for documenting this as sad as it is.

Low to mid-20s and about 8 hours below freezing did this?

[Xenon]

23 minutes ago, Austinpalm said:

Did a quick walk thru the neighborhood.  Here are just a few photos I took. These were all taken just south of West Oleander (Bay side of SPI). Still early, but this is what is showing so far.

Photo Description

1 Royal palm - typical damage for most large royals at this point.

2 Coconut palm - fronds are fried but petiols still look good.

3 Bottle palm 

4 Christmas palms 

5 Royal palm with foxtail to the right - typical damage for larger foxtails.

6 & 7 Coconut palm

8 Royal palms - typical damage for royals of this size

9 Christmas palm - largest I have seen personally on the island. 

10 Veitchia arecina? - In my neighbors back yard

Nice find @ Veitchia 

I'm surprised the sea grapes look so deceptively good.
 

Clay, you need to go knock on some doors and make sure people don't cut those precious palms down prematurely  

[NBTX11]

Did a little drive around today.  New Braunfels TX (NE side of San Antonio).  Low of 9 degrees, with multiple days at or below freezing.

Sabal Palmetto - 100% survival rate.  Look like nothing happened essentially.

Sabal Mexicana - Same as Sabal Palmetto

Washingtonia Filifera - Absolute superstar.  Can hardly tell anything happened other than some fronds slightly bent due to weight of ice, but even then you can't really tell.  100 percent survival, looking flawless.

Washingtonia Hybrid.  Moderate damage, but predict almost 100 percent survival, especially among thicker trunk hybrids.

Washingtonia Robusta - Massive carnage.  50-80 percent dead.  Many crowns collapsing.  Some look like they will survive, spears are looking OK so far, but there will be mass casualties.   

Canary Island dates didn't look that bad to be honest.  I know the crowns will continue to defoliate, but as of now, crowns were not collapsed, and they looked decent, relative to the cold and ice.  Looks like we are going to have decent survival among dates.

That's my report so far. 

Oh and I actually saw some alive queen palms so they must have protected them heavily (basically covered the whole thing.

Edited February 19, 2021 by NBTX11

[necturus]

My three best looking palms in ground palms right now:

Butia yatay x Jubaea - put a metal trash can beside it, filled it with water, and wrapped in frost cloth. I bought this 5 gallon size from Patric and it's been in ground for a year.

Butia yatay - I put two 5 gallon buckets of water beside it and wrapped with frost cloth. I was unable to completely wrap the leaves. 

Sabal uresana - no protection.

All three look unfazed.

Phoenix canariensis x roebellini - unprotected, all leaves are discolored. Not freeze dried like some palms. I've posted this plant on here before - it's pretty large and just getting ready to trunk.

[Austinpalm]

7 minutes ago, Xenon said:

Nice find @ Veitchia 

I'm surprised the sea grapes look so deceptively good.
 

Clay, you need to go knock on some doors and make sure people don't cut those precious palms down prematurely  

Just bought my house.  One of the selling points to me was the large Sabal mexicana and Phoenix canariensis with fern in the backyard along with all the neighbors queens, norfolk island pines, foxtails, royals, and the veitchia.  Of course the Sabal and Phoenix show no damage, but the schefflera and boston fern growing on the Phoenix look rought right now.  Really hope I do not loose them and all of my neighbors neat screening plants the first year I am here.

I will certainly advise people to wait awhile before cutting any palms, unfortunately many of the buildings in the neighborhood are rentals so you never really meet the owner.  They may drive by quickly one day, take a look and decide something looks bad and needs removing without much thought to it.  We'll see what happens.

[NBTX11]

Filifera - flawless 

Robusta - looking iffy but spear looks decent. Probably will recover. 
 

This is why Filifera is a superstar palm for Austin and San Antonio. 

[strongbad635]

At the property where I work in West Houston.  Absolute low was 14f with more than 24 hrs below freezing.

Robustas - fried but the spears appear to be intact.  Should recover, but won't have crowns by summer.

Hybrid - Somewhat fried, but will certainly recover.

[KDubU]

That does not look good.

 

 

[ahosey01]

7 minutes ago, KDubU said:

That does not look good.

 

 

Every photo I've ever seen of these things taking cold damage just looks atrocious.

[NBTX11]

2 hours ago, boaterboat said:

We are in Central Texas, just west of Austin. I believe we had a low of 7-9 degrees, which all started with ice covering everything before we could protect it. I ran a long heat cable near the heart of these Livistona Chinensis and even ran a propane patio heater underneath for a few hours at a time, off and on. I don’t have high hopes for these. I’ll add photos of my others palms as well. 

Spears aren't looking too good.  I hope they recover, but these palms might be goners.  You like to see a little more of the crown not collapsed in order for them to recover.  Time will tell.

[Reyes Vargas]

1 hour ago, Austinpalm said:

Did a quick walk thru the neighborhood.  Here are just a few photos I took. These were all taken just south of West Oleander (Bay side of SPI). Still early, but this is what is showing so far.

Photo Description

1 Royal palm - typical damage for most large royals at this point.

2 Coconut palm - fronds are fried but petiols still look good.

3 Bottle palm 

4 Christmas palms 

5 Royal palm with foxtail to the right - typical damage for larger foxtails.

6 & 7 Coconut palm

8 Royal palms - typical damage for royals of this size

9 Christmas palm - largest I have seen personally on the island. 

10 Veitchia arecina? - In my neighbors back yard

I have a couple royals that look like this.  Should I cut the fryed fronds or just leave them be?

[PalmatierMeg]

I would leave them be for a couple weeks. If the palm is still alive maybe it will be able to recover nutrients from the leaves for renewed growth. A lot of the stuff in those photos may be dead but not show it yet. All dead leaves but green petioles right now just means the leaves are more fragile and show damage almost immediately. Petioles take longer to brown out. If the meristem was killed by cold the palm essentially ceases to exist. Those photos are so sad

[boaterboat]

Some large palms in the neighborhood. Assuming these are Robustas. Not looking good. This is in Lakeway, where we saw single digits. 

Edited February 20, 2021 by boaterboat

[NBTX11]

17 minutes ago, boaterboat said:

Some large palms in the neighborhood. Assuming these are Robustas. Not looking good. This is in Lakeway, where we saw single digits. 

They are Robusta and yes I have seen a lot look like that.  Some look better than others, but all have damage.  I did see some Hybrids with fairly thin trunks that don't look like they have very much damage.

[Xenon]

Well the SPI palms don't have crown collapse yet so there's still some hope for them. Not so lucky on North Padre near Corpus Christi. I am reposting these photos from Altan on North Padre Island with permission. 

His coconut and Adonidia are already collapsing even with protection

[OC2Texaspalmlvr]

2 hours ago, Xenon said:

His coconut and Adonidia are already collapsing even with protection

That's very unfortunate yet was assumed to be the outcome. Temp minimum was too low and duration way too long =( 

[enigma99]

Yikes. A lot of nasty photos coming in

[ahosey01]

Curious if anyone has anything surprising to share. Like a palm that should look really bad, but doesn’t - at least yet.

Also, anyone got any photos of any sabals after single digits?

[Xenon]

Here are some highlights from a chat I had with a longtime palm enthusiast, Richard Travis, in South Texas 2 days ago:

Reports are from Brownsville. Much of this is still preliminary of course.

Beccariophoenix madagascariensis  - looks surprisingly good 

Pseudophoenix sp. - looks great

Cuban Copernicia spp. - looks good

Coccothrinax spp. - injured 

huge Attalea with trunk - burned but will survive 

big coconut - "burned but doesn't look worse than many other palms"

royals - burned, "funny" color on the crownshafts. fallen leaf bases reveal a green interior crownshaft 

 

[Xenon]

Also Dypsis leptocheilos - "doesn't look that bad" 

[Meangreen94z]

17 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

Spears aren't looking too good.  I hope they recover, but these palms might be goners.  You like to see a little more of the crown not collapsed in order for them to recover.  Time will tell.

North and West of Austin received heavy ice the Thursday and Sunday morning before. That’s what folded the fronds, the weight bent two trunks on a yucca I had. I drove around and saw Washingtonia Filifera in Burnet or Bertram that looked the same. I didn’t get a close look at the spear.

[NBTX11]

3 hours ago, ahosey01 said:

Curious if anyone has anything surprising to share. Like a palm that should look really bad, but doesn’t - at least yet.

Also, anyone got any photos of any sabals after single digits?

I will see if I can get some today, but basically ALL sabals look fine here from 9F.  I mean basically no damage at all.

[NBTX11]

52 minutes ago, Meangreen94z said:

North and West of Austin received heavy ice the Thursday and Sunday morning before. That’s what folded the fronds, the weight bent two trunks on a yucca I had. I drove around and saw Washingtonia Filifera in Burnet or Bertram that looked the same. I didn’t get a close look at the spear.

I didn't see any Filifera with bent over fronds here.  The only one with bent over fronds are the Robusta.  

There is a large Filifera in Burnet, TX on the left side of the road on the North side of town, as you are going north on 281.  I don't know what they got to, but this will be a good cold test for that palm.  There are also some very old Filifera in Killeen, not far from Fort Hood. 

[Reyes Vargas]

My bottle palms look much better than my pygmy date palms.

[NBTX11]

After 9 degrees. Everything less hardy than Robusta look great. Robusta looking iffy, going to be 50 percent deaths there is my current prediction. 
 

Hybrid Washingtonias look really good

[NBTX11]

Sabal Mexicana 

[NBTX11]

Sabal Palmettos 

[NBTX11]

Sabal palmettos looking flawless

[NBTX11]

Sabal Mexicana and Washingtonia Filifera

[boaterboat]

Here are some Sabals from the Lakeway area. I don’t think any of these were protected. 

[NBTX11]

All Canary island dates I saw look surprisingly good. 

[Swolte]

I am cautiously optimistic. I began removing protections (no heat source!) from plants in the yard and they mostly look as good (or bad) as I left them. New growth that was present still looks fresh green and no sign of damage to the leaves. Can't say the same for (parts of) those palms that were unprotected...  I'll continue clearing protections this afternoon and try to take some pics along the way. I realize the real tests will come later this spring/summer but I am hopeful. 

The grocery run to town revealed several severely damaged robustas.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Swolte

[NBTX11]

Here’s where it gets dicey. Robusta looking rough, but some will recover. Not all crowns have collapsed. Some look better than others

[Meangreen94z]

4 hours ago, NBTX11 said:

I didn't see any Filifera with bent over fronds here.  The only one with bent over fronds are the Robusta.  

There is a large Filifera in Burnet, TX on the left side of the road on the North side of town, as you are going north on 281.  I don't know what they got to, but this will be a good cold test for that palm.  There are also some very old Filifera in Killeen, not far from Fort Hood. 

yeah your filifera looks good. I think we’re talking about the same Filfera in Burnet. It’s in front of some sort of body/auto/machine shop. 

[DallasPalms]

My Pindos look bad but seem to have survived at the base down to around 2F. I have a small cerifera that appears to be shriveled but with signs of life ... some Wagnerianus I left elevated I though would come out perfect they are small plants too. They look good with alot of browning..

My seedlings I brought most of them in before we dropped below 20ish but I left my Mejdool seedlings out, just a few months old... they look good!

Oh and two Bizzies seem to have done well down to around 17f through the first few hours of snow they are showing some leaf damage but alot less than expected. I realize they can take time to show damage...

Fingers crossed 

Edited February 20, 2021 by DallasPalms