ovobontsira

[mike in kurtistown]

This post is a response to a question I received on Facebook, and I am responding in PalmTalk because of the facilities for a more lengthy response.  It involves growing a species of Dypsis (now Chrysalidocarpus) identified as ovobontsira in offerings from RPS that I sowed in June 2009 and in September 2013.

The only seedling survivor of the 09 seed batch was planted on March 2019 and has grown well. This is what it looks like today (lawn chair for scale):

I found another seedling in a seedpot that contained very different palms, obviously misplaced. Looking at my records, I saw that I was raising "orange crush" (now Chrysiladocarpus paucifolius) which the oddball seedling resembled at that point of growth, so I planted it near a group of those. Here is its appearance today (one of the paucifolius is showing off to the left):

My conclusion is that this palm looks like the one planted as ovobontsira in the first photo.

I also raised palms from the 2013 purchase labeled as ovobontsira. These are very different from palms of the 2009 purchase:

My first guess was that this might be what was being sold locally as Dypsis ampasindavae (now Chrysalidocarpus loucoubensis). 

So I checked Palms and the Palmpedia site for more information. The best lead was a picture and description in Palms from Madagascar palm expert Mijoro. His picture and the description is shown below:

There were several photos on the Palmpedia site from various well-known palm experts. They all seem to be of the same part of the same palm, showing huge leaf bases and long green petioles. (I wish someone would have backed up and taken a pic of the entire palm.) At this point, I don't think that any of my palms are the true ovobontsira, and I even have my doubts about the photos supplied to the Palmpedia site.

Any corrections or advice from anyone would be welcomed.

 

[John hovancsek]

This is the one I have that looks similar to your first pic

[mike in kurtistown]

Bumping this topic in response to the recent topic on ovobontsira and "vatovavy blue" I also obtained a vatovavy blue locally and planted it out in August 2021. No blue on that one either. It looks like a C. loucoubensis (previously named D. ampasandavae) but is growing quite well. Here it is today (I apologize for the grass.) The larger ones in back are my 2013 "ovobontsiras", planted out in January 2017.

I planted out a palm obtained locally as ampasandavae in in June 2017. I', amazed that it actually has two green leaves at the same time. It has not been a good grower. The other one I planted at the same time died.

I hope someone can clear up these chaos.