I have a lone Chamaedorea hooperiana in my garden.  Until recently I have been thinking  that it was a male specimen, if not for any other reason, just because it never set fruits , even duds.  Besides I think I had detected once pollen on flowers.  Another elatior hybrid nearby is female and produces loads of unpollinated fruits, which of course caused my initial impression about the sex of the hooperiana specimen.  Until I have recently read in Don Hodel's book that in hooperiana male and female inflorescences are undifferentiated (whatever this is supposed to mean).  This information combined with the fact that those inflorescences do not desiccate readily after anthesis (just like male inflorescences of other Chamaedorea spp do -e.g. costaricana, glaucifolia, oblongata, radicalis, microspadix to name few), makes me doubt over the actual sex of my hooperiana.  Can you help? 

What kind of palm do you have in the second photo?

I have a Hooperiana that has set fruit for the first time, probably not gonna be fertile. I have no other Hooperiana in the area, next closest Chamaedorea are Plusoma and Seifrizii but at least 20ft away. I'll snap some pics when I get home of fruit and parts that haven't fruited if there is any to compare.

2 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

I have a lone Chamaedorea hooperiana in my garden.  Until recently I have been thinking  that it was a male specimen, if not for any other reason, just because it never set fruits , even duds.  Besides I think I had detected once pollen on flowers.  Another elatior hybrid nearby is female and produces loads of unpollinated fruits, which of course caused my initial impression about the sex of the hooperiana specimen.  Until I have recently read in Don Hodel's book that in hooperiana male and female inflorescences are undifferentiated (whatever this is supposed to mean).  This information combined with the fact that those inflorescences do not desiccate readily after anthesis (just like male inflorescences of other Chamaedorea spp do -e.g. costaricana, glaucifolia, oblongata, radicalis, microspadix to name few), makes me doubt over the actual sex of my hooperiana.  Can you help? 

The good old chamaedorea with there flowers that confuse the best of us key word observation is the go if you have plenty of them to choose from it’s even easier to observe them I have been growing chamaedorea varieties for twenty plus years and of that I have only been successful in pollinating my adscedans successfully with hundreds of viable seeds this is my first year at trying to work Metallica plants on how to pollinate them time will tell if iam successful but I always get radicalis plumosa elegans  geonoformis microspadix varieties to set viable seeds without any help keep on making observations and research plus luck is the go good luck in your quest 

4 minutes ago, happypalms said:

The good old chamaedorea with there flowers that confuse the best of us key word observation is the go if you have plenty of them to choose from it’s even easier to observe them I have been growing chamaedorea varieties for twenty plus years and of that I have only been successful in pollinating my adscedans successfully with hundreds of viable seeds this is my first year at trying to work Metallica plants on how to pollinate them time will tell if iam successful but I always get radicalis plumosa elegans  geonoformis microspadix varieties to set viable seeds without any help keep on making observations and research plus luck is the go good luck in your quest 

I have a group of metalica plants growing in a pot inside my cold frame. There mixed plants of both sexes in the pot. Accommodation in the cold frame restricts to some extent number of potential pollinators. Nevertheless some plants do set few fruits with well shaped seeds every year.

2 minutes ago, Phoenikakias said:

I have a group of metalica plants growing in a pot inside my cold frame. There mixed plants of both sexes in the pot. Accommodation in the cold frame restricts to some extent number of potential pollinators. Nevertheless some plants do set few fruits with well shaped seeds every year.

Are they viable seeds I have them in group plantings but never any seeds plus I read they have sticky pollen I might be missing something in my observations 

21 minutes ago, happypalms said:

Are they viable seeds I have them in group plantings but never any seeds plus I read they have sticky pollen I might be missing something in my observations 

Most of the seeds are gifted away, but a couple of them had fallen undetected on the surface of the pot and now I have two extra babies metalica!

On 10/30/2023 at 12:16 PM, happypalms said:

Are they viable seeds I have them in group plantings but never any seeds plus I read they have sticky pollen I might be missing something in my observations 

Here is entire this year's seed production and offspring. I have installed a sprinkler system inside thecolr frame. Could it be that some random pollination takes place through water droplets, as all plants grow very closely together?

Unfortunately my Hooperiana doesn't have any flowers to show at the moment, only fruit that might not be viable

2 hours ago, Phoenikakias said:

Here is entire this year's seed production and offspring. I have installed a sprinkler system inside thecolr frame. Could it be that some random pollination takes place through water droplets, as all plants grow very closely together?

All I know about Metallica is there absolutely beautiful and for some reason I never get any seeds of mine your ones look pretty amazing nice growing you have green thumbs that’s for sure