2 headed Jubaea

[LivistonaFan]

I had recently been looking at somewhat overpriced Jubaea and discovered this remarkable specimen. Do any of you know of other multi-headed Jubaea especially adult specimens? I've seen this phenomenon before with Livistona chinensis, but I can't imagine what it would look like on a palm with such broad trunks.
Now I'm a little bummed that I didn't buy it🤔.

[SeanK]

Think how bummed you'd be if you paid beaucoup bucks and then one head later died.

[Las Palmas Norte]

That's crazy man.

[LivistonaFan]

8 hours ago, SeanK said:

Think how bummed you'd be if you paid beaucoup bucks and then one head later died.

This was one of the things I had thought when I was considering whether to buy it. 
It was a new shipment of about 30 plants and I once briefly walked past them all when I noticed a Jubaea with a strange, different crown shape a few plants away. I stood in front of this plant for at least 20 minutes, desperately trying to find pictures on the internet of larger specimens with 2 or more heads.
Since I had already bought a larger Jubaea 5 years ago for about half the price and didn't know if I would like the shape in a few years, I didn't take it.  

Now I will look again this weekend if the Jubaea is still there and will probably not be quite as reasonable as last time.

[LivistonaFan]

1 hour ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

That's crazy man.

Yeah I wonder how common this phenomenon is? 1 in 20, 1 in 100 or maybe even 1 in 1000?

[hbernstein]

Why would one of the heads die? They both look vigorous.

[SeanK]

11 hours ago, hbernstein said:

Why would one of the heads die? They both look vigorous.

Siamese Twins?

[Las Palmas Norte]

On 6/14/2023 at 5:49 AM, hbernstein said:

Why would one of the heads die? They both look vigorous.

I've had that double headed feature with Trachycarpus fortunei. Every time one became dominant and the other perished. However, I can't say that this will be the case with other genus. There are plenty of instances to prove otherwise.

[SeanK]

4 hours ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

I've had that double headed feature with Trachycarpus fortunei. Every time one became dominant and the other perished. However, I can't say that this will be the case with other genus. There are plenty of instances to prove otherwise.

A couple of documented cases of multi-headed Butia.

[BeyondTheGarden]

8 hours ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

I've had that double headed feature with Trachycarpus fortunei. Every time one became dominant and the other perished. However, I can't say that this will be the case with other genus. There are plenty of instances to prove otherwise.

It seems like the dominate one commands more nutrients from the sun and ground; I always wondered if you could keep them at parity by overpruning the larger of the two. 

[NWpalms@206]

 How many times have you seen this? I would buy it. I have a couple hundred germinated jubaea that I’ve put some 2 per pot ,hoping for some kind of double jubaea. If it grew to maturity you’d have a truly unique specimen. 

[Bigfish]

I would check and make sure that there's a growing center spear on both heads before buying that.  Sometimes it can look like 2 heads for a while, but what actually happened is an injury occurred where the spear got blocked, and so it found another exit out of the trunk.  The other head will eventually wither and died after the leaves get old enough.