Royal palms biting the dust at FLL

[Valhallalla]

Yesterday when I arrived at the linear park on the south side of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport I found these two Royal palms with completely collapsed crowns. They are part of a group of palms forming an alley of sorts in the median of the parking area.

Checking the other palms in the group I could see that they were all in various states of decline. The older leaves are brown and drooping. Still green leaves are thin as if experiencing drought. The inflorescences are collapsing as well.

It appeared that all of the royals in this group are affected and will probably suffer a similar fate. A few at the eastern end are still holding inflorescences but look to be declining. There is another group of royals a slight distance away that are not showing these symptoms at this time.

These are mature well established palms that have been here since the park was created in the 1990s. Some parts of the park have irrigation but I'm not sure about this area. The park is maintained but not overly so. Many things are left to grow as they wish. These palms are not pre-emptively pruned as royals often are to minimize property damage.

I suspect these palms will soon be gone. Royal palms are far from uncommon here but it is still sad to lose decades old plants. I wonder what, if anything, will they be replaced by. There is not much that I can do much about things but I would still like to know what is causing this problem if anybody knows. Any ideas?

[Collectorpalms]

Why are they all looking fried including the dead shrubs, it looks like something out of Texas! 

[Valhallalla]

Yeah, I didn't notice the dry shrubs until I was leaving and didn't have time to look into that. I don't know if these things are related. I can assure you we didn't have anything this winter like you had in Texas. Barely hit the 40s once or twice I think.

Here is a view from the northwest. There is a group of three royals across the road from the main group showing symptoms. You can see one of them here. This is not the other group I mentioned above. That group is separated by a large body of water and a huge group of mangroves and other trees. You can also see the dead looking shrubs with many green ones interspersed. Lawn is still green too.

I will try to go back there in the next few days and inspect things a little closer especially the dead looking shrubs.

[NOT A TA]

You MAY be looking at two (or more) unrelated issues.

Inspect the Roystonea for indication of woodpecker activity. They may be infected with Thielaviopsis paradoxa spread by woodpeckers.

The extended drought that recently ended with rain this past weekend may have caused the shrubbery to dry out if there's no irrigation there. The sun was brutal during the dry spell with very little cloud cover for weeks. The lawn would pop back to green quicker from the rain this past weekend. Might also be a problem with irrigation if there is any in that area. Look for a nice green spot nearby where a sprinkler head was broken off or other pipe damage.

[chinandega81]

The location is what is concerning to me. I know there are some Caribbean islands that have a disease in their Rotal Palms that kills them. I hope that disease hasn't traveled here via cargo shipments to the airport on the other side of the runway. This park would be ground zero for that type of inadvertant intorduction. 

I can tell you that it hasn't been "that dry" in this area for shrubs and established Royals to die like that. Cold is not a factor either. I doubt woodpeckers caused this type of widespread damage to multiple mature and previously robust specimens.

Maybe DERM can get out there and test and diagnose what is happening. It is very concerning.

[PricklyPearSATC]

I think it is disease

[Looking Glass]

It’s been dry, but not that dry.  Those trees have been through worse prolonged drought conditions in the past.  Unirrigated stuff was sad until the recent rains, but not dying.  

I wonder if someone sprayed or spread something like the wrong weed killer around there?  Dead bushes and palms all together in the same spot....  whoops.   

[PalmatierMeg]

It all looks hinky to me, too. If it's public/city property, contact public works.

[Valhallalla]

So I returned to the park this afternoon to attempt to figure out what is going on with these plants. Here's what I found:

- The only plants affected are these Royals plus three more nearby to the west and the shrubs below them. There are plenty of other Royals and other palm species in the park that are fine. All of the damaged plants are within this small area but not all plants in the area are damaged.

- The dead looking shrubs seem to be crotons. There are some with nothing but brown leaves and others look fine. There are other plants in these plantings that don't seem to be affected. Oak trees nearby don't appear to be affected. The St Augustine grass below doesn't appear to be affected.

- There were some remnant granules of fertilizer around the base of the palms. This was not applied recently and has also been applied to many other palms in the park. I couldn't find any evidence of the fertilizer around the crotons. This was not the cause of the plant problems.

- Whatever happened here happened recently and quickly. I was last at the park around a month ago and don't recall anything unusual. On the palms with collapsed crowns you can see that the spear leaf is still green and some of the other leaves are still partially green.

I may never know exactly what has gone on here. I am reasonably certain that it was not natural. I don't believe it was drought or some exotic palm disease. I lean toward what Looking Glass and Meg suggest as an explanation, that this was the accidental or intentional doings of man.

The park is part of the airport and is run by the Broward Aviation Authority. Because of that it was the only place still open during the early days of lockdown when all the beaches and state and local parks were shut down. It was a bit of an oasis for my wife and I during those weird and somewhat peaceful days a year ago.

I must say that I have never heard a group of Royal palms make the kind of sounds I heard these make in the wind today. The rustling of the desiccated leaves above me was eerie and sad. Maybe not all of these palms are doomed. Perhaps some will pull through.

Link to map location: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+Lauderdale-Hollywood+International+Airport/@26.0638399,-80.1574358,118m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x2ae0339d90a6cbe6!8m2!3d26.0742344!4d-80.1506022

 

 

 

[Collectorpalms]

Looks like the water in the satellite image right next to them could have become brackish. Maybe they are getting salt water intrusion, from rising seas level or higher levels of sodium from brackish water from the ocean. 
Otherwise a disease, that is my only other guess in combination with sprinklers that have been off for awhile.

Edited April 23, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[bubba]

Obviously, this could simply be a problem created by a mistake an application of pesticide. These Royals give the appearance similar to what happens when struck by lightning. However, this is Quite odd and should be researched immediately.

 

I am going to send this thread to IFAS, The University of Florida’s tropical plant disease division and hope they take a look. They were central in the diagnosis and cure of lethal yellowing. I certainly hope that it is a straightforward issue and not a disease but it should be investigated immediately!

Edited April 23, 2021 by bubba
Dictation system malfunction

[Collectorpalms]

DEFINITELY researched immediately, probably they should be REMOVED ASAP, if there is nothing obviously going wrong in the ground.
 

.... they show signs of desiccation. And there is the one with the trunk flopped over that still has a green central spear. Does that happen with any known diseases? 

Edited April 23, 2021 by Collectorpalms

[TikiRick]

Roundup. 

[redant]

52 minutes ago, TikiRick said:

Roundup. 

Roundup applied to anything around the palm would not kill it, however I have used roundup concentrate to kill a couple royals in my yard by boring a large hole in the side and pouring some concentrate in the hole, the death of the palm looks EXACTLY like these.

[NOT A TA]

6 hours ago, Collectorpalms said:

And there is the one with the trunk flopped over that still has a green central spear. Does that happen with any known diseases? 

As I mentioned earlier, Thielaviopsis paradoxa.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp143

[redant]

4 hours ago, NOT A TA said:

As I mentioned earlier, Thielaviopsis paradoxa.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp143

"

• "Only fresh trunk wounds will become infected by the fungus, so disease management includes limiting man-made wounds to the palm trunk, especially the upper third of the trunk."

• this seems unlikely with these royals.

• I was just on northlake Blvd and saw a cluster that looked like these, no collapsed crowns but 50% of the fronds where brown. 

[NOT A TA]

Although a lot of the Royals are trimmed around here to prevent damage or injury from falling fronds the ones in the pics don't appear to be. Typically the pruned ones also won't be allowed to go to seed and the inflorescences are removed. So IF the palms are diseased it's unlikely pruning is the transmission vector.

Woodpeckers can transfer the disease. Since the birds stay in a relatively small area and return to the same trees regularly they only need to hit one infected tree initially and eventually spread the disease to the other palm trees they frequent.

Being a weirdo tree guy with a background in arboriculture and an interest in diseases I've observed the disease and seen clusters of trees affected. The most common cluster cases I've watched have been on Syagrus romanzoffiana and appeared to have been spread by crews pruning in commercial areas, HOA's, and government maintained areas. Typically a tree becomes infected, then the next pruning cycle (because the Syagrus hold their dead fronds and folks don't like the look) the disease is spread to the next palm tree in line of whatever direction they work as they move along. So there might be a row of trees with several or many in a row where they look fine and then once you come to a diseased one the next tree (that gets pruned after the diseased one) starts declining, then the next pruning cycle the cycle is repeated.  Based on my observations it appears that only one or two succeeding trees get infected each time the pruning occurs. I'll guess the disease is wiped off the tools while pruning an unaffected tree (thereby infecting it).  Eventually the crown of the first infected folds over and often Ganoderma zonatum has been at work by then and can appear to be the cause if it has an obvious conk.

When Woody woodpecker goes throughout his day he goes from tree to tree in an area returning to the same trees. So rather than a slow increase in the number of cases in an area spread by pruning crews (months-year) Woody is flying around from tree to tree in a given area spreading the disease much quicker. I lost my favorite coconut to the disease and I'm positive Woody was responsible. Having observed other cases previously I quickly removed the tree long before crown decline and have not had any other trees affected.

Pic below is an example of the disease starting in two different spots on the same tree after Woody made two groupings of holes. The trunk was dissected and the two diseased areas were separated by what appeared to be healthy tissue. It's on a coconut so the bleeding is observed but most other palms show very little bleeding (if any) in my observations and the only other palms where I've seen any bleeding has been on Queens. Bottom pic is typical infected Queen at a shopping center.

[Silas_Sancona]

On 4/22/2021 at 9:06 AM, chinandega81 said:

The location is what is concerning to me. I know there are some Caribbean islands that have a disease in their Rotal Palms that kills them. I hope that disease hasn't traveled here via cargo shipments to the airport on the other side of the runway. This park would be ground zero for that type of inadvertant intorduction. 

I can tell you that it hasn't been "that dry" in this area for shrubs and established Royals to die like that. Cold is not a factor either. I doubt woodpeckers caused this type of widespread damage to multiple mature and previously robust specimens.

Maybe DERM can get out there and test and diagnose what is happening. It is very concerning.

 

16 hours ago, bubba said:

Obviously, this could simply be a problem created by a mistake an application of pesticide. These Royals give the appearance similar to what happens when struck by lightning. However, this is Quite odd and should be researched immediately.

 

I am going to send this thread to IFAS, The University of Florida’s tropical plant disease division and hope they take a look. They were central in the diagnosis and cure of lethal yellowing. I certainly hope that it is a straightforward issue and not a disease but it should be investigated immediately!

Agree with both you and Bubba, we can guess all night and year on the " What caused this.." thoughts  Until tissue and soil samples are thoroughly analyzed -by those who do this for a living-, all theories are just shots in the dark.    Once the Scientific sleuths have done their work, Lets hope data collected/ analyzed/ published doesn't point to some new disease's arrival. Someone purposely harming the Royals / other plants there can be delt with much more easily than the 1st potential scenario.

[Merlyn]

6 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Agree with both you and Bubba, we can guess all night and year on the " What caused this.." thoughts  Until tissue and soil samples are thoroughly analyzed -by those who do this for a living-, all theories are just shots in the dark.   

Yup.  But sometimes it's fun to speculate. 

My first thought was Thielaviopsis, since I see some woodpecker holes and what appears to be vertical dark stripes aka "bleeding trunk."  A bunch of queens at a local hotel keep on dying, one after another.  They all have random woodpecker holes and bleed marks below them.   Are there any other "common" diseases that cause sudden canopy collapse?  Thielaviopsis is the only one I can think of right now.

[bubba]

I have made contact with IFAS and made them aware of this troubling situation regarding the Royal Palms at Fort Lauderdale International Airport. IFAS was responsible for diagnosing and coming up with cures and strategies to combat lethal yellowing. They are a very capable State of Florida resource and I will ride them to make certain that this is properly addressed. sadly, my guess is that it was some missapplication of pesticide or hijinx.

[Valhallalla]

I visited the park this morning to see how the royals are doing. To my relief I found that things had improved somewhat. The two with collapsed crowns were still the same but the other ones all seemed to be pushing through new green foliage, some better than others. The new growth may become stunted but it appears to be fresh and not desiccated. The old dead leaves will likely remain until they fall on their own as they don't do much trimming of that sort here. The nearby crotons that were also affected are recovering as well and were actually flowering. It's like the juices are flowing again after having been suddenly shut off.

I spoke with another park visitor about the palms. He told me he first noticed the two with collapsed crowns having trouble about two months ago and said that it seemed to happen quickly. He also said that on a different visit he saw a group of people who were examining the palms and taking photos. Perhaps they were folks from IFAS. Hey bubba, have you heard anything from them?

Anyway, I think most if not all of the palms that haven't yet collapsed will recover. We have had some heavy rains recently so that helps. I'd still really like to know what the heck happened here.

[Jimhardy]

Maybe being next to the airport...one of the planes had to ditch some fuel

and the palms etc got sprayed.

[bubba]

Has anyone observed this situation with Royals outside of the Ft. Lauderdale Airport?

[redant]

They do seem to be recovering

 

[Tyrone]

On 4/23/2021 at 2:33 AM, Looking Glass said:

It’s been dry, but not that dry.  Those trees have been through worse prolonged drought conditions in the past.  Unirrigated stuff was sad until the recent rains, but not dying.  

I wonder if someone sprayed or spread something like the wrong weed killer around there?  Dead bushes and palms all together in the same spot....  whoops.   

It almost looks like a crop dusting aircraft has dropped roundup on them.

[Valhallalla]

6 hours ago, Jimhardy said:

Maybe being next to the airport...one of the planes had to ditch some fuel

and the palms etc got sprayed.

This is not likely. The runways have an east-west orientation. This park is on the south side of the airport and not under the flight path of either runway. I regularly surf beneath the south runway flight path, well during the rare times we actually have waves anyway.

[Valhallalla]

2 hours ago, bubba said:

Has anyone observed this situation with Royals outside of the Ft. Lauderdale Airport?

Personally, I am constantly observing palms I see when I am out and about. I take mental notes regarding their general condition and how well they are growing. If they are struggling or dying I try to determine why. I am always looking out for rare and/or unusual palms. It's just something I have done for the past 30ish years since I became interested in palms.

As to royal palms specifically, I haven't noticed anything unusual with most other royals in the area. There are dozens of royals in this same park that are fine. Royal palm bugs can be a problem this time of year. They affect the new growth causing emerging leaves to be chlorotic and become desiccated. I haven't seen much of that this year probably because we have had enough rain lately to flush them out of the crowns. The palms at FLL are not experiencing the affects of royal palm bugs. The older leaves were affected before the new growth.

[Valhallalla]

53 minutes ago, redant said:

They do seem to be recovering

 

I know it's hard to tell from my not so great photo but they are improving. Previously the leaves that were still green were also desiccated. They have regained the moisture they were lacking. What a difference three weeks and maybe some rain can make.

[Valhallalla]

53 minutes ago, Tyrone said:

It almost looks like a crop dusting aircraft has dropped roundup on them.

I agree and my wife also said it looked like they were hit with Roundup. I recall noticing some of the croton bushes that had half the plant brown and dry while the other half was normal. The logistics of applying a sufficient quantity of glyphosate to the foliage of these royals kinda rules that out. And why would anybody want to do that anyway?

I continue to lean toward accidental application of some sort of herbicide or other substance that caused this reaction. Many years ago I applied some weed and feed to an area of my lawn. At the time I had a Cyrtostachys renda that was some distance away but sill experienced affects from the weed killer. The palm survived that episode but succumbed to the cold of January 2010 when I neglected to provide protection (idiot!).

[Looking Glass]

50 minutes ago, Valhallalla said:

I agree and my wife also said it looked like they were hit with Roundup. I recall noticing some of the croton bushes that had half the plant brown and dry while the other half was normal. The logistics of applying a sufficient quantity of glyphosate to the foliage of these royals kinda rules that out. And why would anybody want to do that anyway?

I continue to lean toward accidental application of some sort of herbicide or other substance that caused this reaction. Many years ago I applied some weed and feed to an area of my lawn. At the time I had a Cyrtostachys renda that was some distance away but sill experienced affects from the weed killer. The palm survived that episode but succumbed to the cold of January 2010 when I neglected to provide protection (idiot!).

That’s what I was thinking....   Weed & Feed instead of just feed....   oops.  

[TaylorPlantHunter]

Looks like heavy duty herbicide damage, Imazapir or something really hot, this can kill everything in a large area from a heavy handed application or accident.

[bubba]

I spoke with WPB Branch of IFAS and they referred me to the Fort Lauderdale branch of IFAS. I called the Palm expert in the Fort Lauderdale branch and left a message but sent him an email with the link to this palm talk thread. I am hopeful that I will get a response in the near future!

[bubba]

Please find my letter together with the response from IFAS:

 

[bubba]

Screw-up!

[chinandega81]

Did the other people CC'd reply? I don't think it's salt water intrusion...they are on high ground. I also don't think it was lightning strikes...it would have had to have been multiple strikes and all in the same area. Hopefully is was just pesticide since it looks like they are making a comeback. Thanks for sharing the email and his response!

[Valhallalla]

On 5/17/2021 at 1:38 PM, Looking Glass said:

That’s what I was thinking....   Weed & Feed instead of just feed....   oops.  

 

23 hours ago, TaylorPlantHunter said:

Looks like heavy duty herbicide damage, Imazapir or something really hot, this can kill everything in a large area from a heavy handed application or accident.

I think the answer is a combination of these two lines of thinking.

I was unfamiliar with the herbicide Imazapir so I Googled and learned a bit about it and related chemical Imazapic.  it is absorbed through roots and leaves. It is water soluble and can travel to undesired areas. Imazapic is commonly combined with glyphosate for an extended control formula that works as a pre-emergent. Strong and effective stuff.

I visited the palms again today and walked through some other areas of the park as well. It is obvious that they use chemicals (presumably Roundup) to keep an area about two feet out from the bases of trees and palms free of lawn grass and weeds. They also use it to control weeds in the planting beds of shrubs and smaller plants like those growing next to the affected royals. I'm sure they use mechanical methods as well but most of the unwanted stuff is controlled with chemicals. The entire park with hundreds of palms and trees is treated the same way as far as I know.

What I believe happened is that an herbicide was being routinely applied at the base of the affected palms and around the nearby plantings to control lawn grass and weeds as it has been done many times before. However this time instead of using plain old regular Roundup, that just kills what it lands on, some extended control formula with the Imazapic mixed in was used. This seeped into the ground and got to the roots of the royals and some of the other plants nearby. The royals not only got a dose from what was sprayed at their base but also some of what got sprayed in the planting beds. There are three other royals across the "road" that had also been affected but not as severely as the others because they are surrounded by lawn and only got what was sprayed around their bases.

This seems to fit in with the reply bubba got from IFAS that the problem appears to be abiotic in nature.

So that's my theory on the how but then there is the question of the why. Two possibilities come to mind. One, it was an experiment. "Hey let's see what happens if we use this extended control stuff and maybe we don't have to spray as often" or something. Probably not but who knows? Or two, it was just a plain old mistake. Maybe they grabbed the wrong sprayer out of the trailer. Or maybe after spraying the rest of the park they ran out of regular Roundup and used the other stuff just to finish up the last few things needing spraying. Again who knows?

As I posted the other day, I think most of these palms will pull through. They are already looking better than when I first noticed the problem almost four weeks ago. Most of the crotons are recovering with new growth and flowers. I'll keep checking to see how they do but I suspect that after a summer of south Florida rains these guys will renew their foliage and look somewhat normal again.

Thanks to all who have posted replies in this thread and provided food for thought.

[bubba]

I am waiting for the other folks to respond. After the emails, I reached him by phone and encouraged him to take a trip. He was a great guy and seemed amenable.

The receptionist told me that Brian was their palm guy so the others may have been at UF. Brian promised to get back to me after a physical inspection but he was quite certain that the situation was abiotic (not disease related). Anything more I will pass on to the Board.