Weird swollen trunk Roystonea regia

[Enrigps]

Hello palmtalk
I came across an interesting stem shape from a royal palm. It is very narrow at the base.
Is this kind of swelling normal? I know that it is typical for the stem of this palm to bulge slightly in the middle but i had never seen something like this.
What may have caused this? Can it fall over with the wind?
I feel a bit sorry for this tree being planted so close to the curb...

[aztropic]

Was probably drop planted by a bird,run over by a lawn mower multiple times until it had a growth spurt that caused landscapers to leave it alone. Firmly rooted - no danger of it falling over. It has made a nice recovery.

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Las Palmas Norte]

Being that it's that close to a parking stall, probably tagged by a bumper or two.

[Looking Glass]

You can drive around here and see a lot of palms like this, especially in parking lots and medians where they don’t get a lot of consistent care.  Take a well cared for adult palm with some trunk and stick it in the ground and ignore it, the trunk narrows, then gets big during a few very wet years.   It’s like a marker of time and conditions over years.   The past trunk doesn’t seem to change.  

Take an old neglected palm with a new property owner, someone who allows it to gorge on water and fertilizer for years…. Now the trunk gets big and fat where that started.   The lower trunk never fattens up.  

These are all over around here.   You can even see the growth rings spread out and contract and spread out again over time sometimes.  

[Navarro]

O erosión del riego por aspersión 

[James B]

Possibly some damage caused by a freeze while it was young?

[Enrigps]

Thanks for your comments!
Very interesting to see the story of this palm thru the years. 
the picture is from el salvador, we never have freezing temperatures

[sonoranfans]

looks like it could be recent water was limited.  My largest went a little thin down low so I heavily mulched it and increased emitters in the area and it thickened up noticeably. within 15 months.  This can also happen due to cold but we have been below 32 1x in ten years so none of the narrowing I see has to do with cold.   These trees are all about water, thickness wise.  And the tree pushes water up to the crown preferentially to survive. leaving the lower trunk thinner in times of low water.   Yes it also could be injury but I see this narrowing down low all the time here in street plantings with lots of concrete around and no supplemental irrigation.  In bradenton they are not irrigated as street plantings so they can have a dry spring, sometimes up to 60 days without rain, and they thin up down low.  That is tight spot like our street plantings so some narrowing may occur, depending on water supply for that smaller root area.  In our area this thinning doesn't impact survival, they motor on.

[peachy]

Sonoronfans has it right.  R regia are very common here and unless watered and fed in longish dry spells they do get skinny bits.