Royal palm identification

[Plantking165]

Saw these royals at the kopsick palm arboretum labeled as roystonea princeps and I don't think they are, they are huge I recall princeps being a smaller royal I don't think it's a Cuban either. are any royals bigger than Cubans or are they the largest?

[James B]

Roystonea Regia and Oleracea are considered the largest and most robust in appearance. Depending on climate and cultural needs either can be bigger than the other. Oleracea is faster but a wimp compared to Regia when it comes to cold hardiness. If you are not in a strong 10a pushing 10b Oleracea will struggle and not reach its true potential. Regia is a solid 9b palm provided it gets lots of heat in summer.

[ruskinPalms]

A lot of Roystonea are really hard to tell apart until they flower. I will say both princeps and oleracea tend to not have the green fronds hanging below the horizontal. There is a giant oleracea (I think.. again Roystonea can be tough to ID without flowers/spathes) growing in a front yard in my neighborhood. I really should try to get a pic of it. Trunk girth is not always helpful with identification. I have seen plenty really craptastic regia with thin trunks…

[ruskinPalms]

By the way, I am in no way an expert in identifying any palm lol