Is this a Jube x Butia?

[malcthomas]

Dick...

Many thanks for you response.

Merrill..

The Butia pictured above is growing in our local Botanical Garden.  It is pretty much in the open and  would be getting appropriate levels of light all year round.  There are many similar aged Butia in the district but this is the only one with shortened petioles and fronds.

Regarding my non seeding Butia...It is not a major concern..infact I would rather they didn't fruit.  They must be placing all that energy saved from fruiting into vegetative growth...there is no hassels with fallen fruit and volunteer seedlings popping up everywhere... I certainly have this problem with P.reclinata and P.rupicola.  The black birds pick up the fallen fruit from the lawn and cart them off into the safety of the garden to eat and then the seedlings come up by the thousands...I put a wheel barrow of queen seed into my garden shed the other week only to find that I was feeding half them to a colony of rats that had taken up residence in there...

As for seeming rude...I don't think that could ever happen..

If you haven't noticed thats a Rhode Island Red getting stuck into some Butia fruit in my Avitar...

best wishes...

Malcolm

[PalmGuyWC]

Concerning seed production......

I have several Butias from different sources and they all produce copious amounts of viable seeds every year, except one. The odd ball forms fruit, but only a few viable seed. Most of the seeds are dummies. Patrick has attempted to cross pollinate it several times with no success.

Several years ago I started using horse litter as a mulch under the palms and this has facilated germination of hundreds of unwanted seedlings. Seeds that germinate in the garden are Tracheycarpus, Butias, Washingtonias, Trithrinax, Chamaedoreas radicalis and microspadix, chamaerops and Syagrus romanzoffiana.  Fortunately, my large CIDP is a male, or there would be many seedlings under it.

I have a Livistona decipens (decora) that has been blooming for several years but has never produced seeds before until this year. This year it is loaded with fruit. Rather odd since the past winter was one of the coldest in years. I also have a large L australis which blooms every year, but never has produced any fruit. The Livistonas bloom very early in the spring when the nights are still nippy.

I have a couple of Brahea edulis that bloom, but the varments chew off the flower spikes just before they bloom. Sometimes they set a few seeds but the seeds are eaten before they get ripe. I guess I'm lucky I don't have monkeys jumping through the trees as I hear they can be quite destructive, and some love hearts of palm.

I have several fruiting Sabals but they rarely germinate under the trees. I think the rodents get most of the seeds, and the squirrles are having a field day with my butia fruit now with the exception of the ones that Patrick has pollinated and screened. I have very fat and happy squirrles this time of the year and there is also a very heavy acorn crop this year.

I suspect the blooming Jubaea would have seedlings under it, but Patrick hybridizes every single female flower, and not one is wasted. The fruit has to be screened or the squirrles would clean off every single seed. To get back on subject.....the flowering Jubaea has two infrutencense's that are loaded with almost mature fruit.  It was the best seed set Patrick has ever had on the Jubaea, but the crosses were kind of easy this year.  One is crossed with Butia and the other with Butia X Jubaea. In the past he has tried more exotic crosses with less success.

Dick

[malcthomas]

Dick

This L.decora (hard left) flowers profusely each year but has never set seed.  Three nearby L.australis are always laiden with fruit.   The rats pick up the fallen seed from the lawn, carry them over to a sheltered park bench and  leave a pile of nicely cleaned seed for anyone with the inclination to collect them.

kind regards...Malcolm