Tallest Beaucarnea guatamalensis?

[Meangreen94z]

I spotted in Boca Chica, Texas probably the tallest, skinniest Beaucarnea guatamalensis (?) I’ve seen. It had to be approaching 30 feet.

[Tom in Tucson]

Nice find. I bought a pony tail palm with a red tint to the leaf bases several years ago. I knew right away it might be Beaucarnea guatemalensis. Somewhere a few years prior to my purchase, I had read that despite it's more southerly distribution, it was thought to be more cold hardy than Beaucarnea recurvata. So far my grounded plant has shown no frost damage. The lowest temp. that it endured I know to be 23°. It's had 1-2" of snow twice in that period as well.

There is very little cultural data online about this species. Here's what I've found compared to B. recurvata:

The leaves have fewer teeth, are glossier, and longer.

The height is about the same, but the base is much narrower.

It's less common, but not as rare as the straight leaved species in cultivation.

Hi 99°, Lo 65°

 

[Meangreen94z]

10 hours ago, Tom in Tucson said:

Nice find. I bought a pony tail palm with a red tint to the leaf bases several years ago. I knew right away it might be Beaucarnea guatemalensis. Somewhere a few years prior to my purchase, I had read that despite it's more southerly distribution, it was thought to be more cold hardy than Beaucarnea recurvata. So far my grounded plant has shown no frost damage. The lowest temp. that it endured I know to be 23°. It's had 1-2" of snow twice in that period as well.

There is very little cultural data online about this species. Here's what I've found compared to B. recurvata:

The leaves have fewer teeth, are glossier, and longer.

The height is about the same, but the base is much narrower.

It's less common, but not as rare as the straight leaved species in cultivation.

Hi 99°, Lo 65°

 

Thanks. I had noticed there was very little information on the species in the past. There was a wholesale grower in South Texas called Quality Cactus and Seed that operated from the 70’s until just a few years ago. He sold Beaucarnea guatamalensis, which is where this one may have originated from. I noticed the smaller specimen he  grew had shorter bases and thinner longer trunks than recurvata, but didn’t realize they could grow into the above proportions. That is very interesting regarding the hardiness, but would make sense given this one shows no damage. Boca Chica is about as far south and close to the coast as you get in Texas, zone 10a.

There are a lot of large Beaucarnea recurvata specimen in that area. I would like to document some them one day. I have a few pictures.

[Merlyn]

Just wondering what makes this one a Guatemalensis?  I understood them to have pinkish new foliage and sorta curly leaves.  I have found some at local box stores but don't have a large one...yet!

[Meangreen94z]

6 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

Just wondering what makes this one a Guatemalensis?  I understood them to have pinkish new foliage and sorta curly leaves.  I have found some at local box stores but don't have a large one...yet!

Based on the skinny elongated 25-30 foot trunk, and lack of a substantial base. Like Tom mentioned there isn’t a whole lot of information on guatamalensis, but this fits that profile.

[Meangreen94z]

Here are the few pictures from Guatemala on iNaturalist. I think I remember reading the species grows into Mexico and is slightly different there. The leaf growth in these pictures is more sparse, my specimen may just be a mutant recurvata, or a hybrid of the two.

 

[Merlyn]

27 minutes ago, Meangreen94z said:

Based on the skinny elongated 25-30 foot trunk, and lack of a substantial base. Like Tom mentioned there isn’t a whole lot of information on guatamalensis, but this fits that profile.

Ah, the only characteristic that I knew of was the reddish/pinkish new leaves (only if in lots of sun) and the thicker, more plasticky and more curvy leaves.  I do know that they only grow pinkish new leaves if they are in sun.  We have an indoor one that gets gnawed on by one of our cats.  It grows slowly indoors, so occasionally I stick it outside for a month to recover from the constant feline defoliation.  In the sun they grow out a rose pink, but indoors they grow out a light green and slowly transition to darker green.

I also have a Beaucarnea indoors with extremely skinny leaves, probably only about 1/8" wide.  It's probably a Recurvata.

The top photo looks like one I've seen called "Stricta."  https://www.agaveville.org/viewtopic.php?t=4737

[Meangreen94z]

6 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Ah, the only characteristic that I knew of was the reddish/pinkish new leaves (only if in lots of sun) and the thicker, more plasticky and more curvy leaves.  I do know that they only grow pinkish new leaves if they are in sun.  We have an indoor one that gets gnawed on by one of our cats.  It grows slowly indoors, so occasionally I stick it outside for a month to recover from the constant feline defoliation.  In the sun they grow out a rose pink, but indoors they grow out a light green and slowly transition to darker green.

I also have a Beaucarnea indoors with extremely skinny leaves, probably only about 1/8" wide.  It's probably a Recurvata.

The top photo looks like one I've seen called "Stricta."  https://www.agaveville.org/viewtopic.php?t=4737

I think both Beaucarnea stricta and gracilis are a bit north of there in Mexico, and are a little different than that one. It may be like the Nolina species in Mexico where there were several tossed together in a group and are slowly being described and separated.  There may be species of Beaucarnea in Guatemala that haven’t been recognized. It’s unfortunate those two related groups draw little interest. 

[happypalms]

This is my one I have in my garden I have smaller ones in pots and they flush a light red new growth colour 

[Meangreen94z]

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

This is my one I have in my garden I have smaller ones in pots and they flush a light red new growth colour 

Thank you for posting 

[Calosphace]

At work we grow two varieties of Ponytails. One has the twirling leaves and seem consistently less cold hardy, we lost one last year and lost none of the straight-leaved ones. I also had a ponytail palm at home with curling leaves that met the same fate. Are these just different selections of B. recurvata? I've never observed pinkish growth and a few are quite tall (two story) in complete exposure and have cream-colored flowers

[Merlyn]

@Calosphace in my limited experience, the regular Recurvata are easily hardy to 25F, even with frost.  I have two beasts (named Cousin IT and Cousin IT's Sister) that saw 24-26F and frost with no substantial damage.  This is Cousin It's Sister a couple of days before the freeze in 2021 and had no damage:

It has doubled in base diameter in the last 1.5 years.  The giant chunk out of the base (from the tree guys dropping a piece of trunk on it) healed up okay with regular dusting of sulfur powder.

[Tom in Tucson]

4 hours ago, Calosphace said:

At work we grow two varieties of Ponytails. One has the twirling leaves and seem consistently less cold hardy, we lost one last year and lost none of the straight-leaved ones. I also had a ponytail palm at home with curling leaves that met the same fate. Are these just different selections of B. recurvata? I've never observed pinkish growth and a few are quite tall (two story) in complete exposure and have cream-colored flowers

I've grown several species of Beaucarnea.

These are the only ones I know about with straight (rigid) leaves:

B. gracilis

B. purpusii

B. stricta

All the rest have relaxed leaves (not including Calibanus). Many of those are either not in cultivation, or are rarely grown.

Hi 97°, Lo 60°

[Calosphace]

Thanks for the input. Here is a picture of a (not mine) plant with the feature I am talking about

We had one that was quite tall (taller than me at least) that displayed this characteristic when neighboring ones did not so I wonder if it is just a different locality but same species? Wish I could find pics but both of those curling plants are long rotted away now..

 

[Tom in Tucson]

13 hours ago, Calosphace said:

Thanks for the input. Here is a picture of a (not mine) plant with the feature I am talking about

We had one that was quite tall (taller than me at least) that displayed this characteristic when neighboring ones did not so I wonder if it is just a different locality but same species? Wish I could find pics but both of those curling plants are long rotted away now..

 

The type of Pony Tail Palm with extremely long leaves used to go by the appropriate name Beaucarnea (Nolina) longifolia. It's currently accepted name is Nolina parviflora. Sound confusing? I know I am.

Hi 87°, Lo 58°