a watchamacalit palm/bananna

[galveston1602]

I am sure this probably doesnt belong here but, I havent a clue where else to look for the answer.  anyone care to guess what this is, It was bought 3 years ago for 20$ on the home depot rack labeled "tropicals"  Ive always up untill the last few days thought it was a giant bird of paradise.  especially since it went through a slight (rare) snow 2 years ago,  the leaves are probably 10'tall and about 5' not including the stem

heres a few pics

and thanks

[Jim in Los Altos]

Looks like Streletzia nicoli (Gant Bird of Paradise) to me. I have quite a few of them in my landscape and they all looked like those pictured when they were young. Ravenala madagascariensis (Traveller's Palm) is not nearly as cold tolerant and G. Bird of P. and their giant leaves are all in one plane. Not positioned facing different directions the way Birds do.

Jim

[Kris]

Dear Galveston  

the plant in those pictures are travellers palm(R.madagaries palm)

give it  4 years or so to grow.and it will prove my point.

because it is very common in india.so i have seen it in

many sizes and age groups.

Love,

Kris.

[galveston1602]

Thanks for the reply,

The pictures may not show it but, the leaves all do face the same way, excepting the suckers.  there are 2 main plants and about 4ish small suckers.   attached is a pic of a giant bird (Streletzia nicoli) planted at the same time in the same area of the yard, this was labeled as such from a regular nursery.

the leaves on the original plant are about 2-3 times larger than those of the nearby s.nicoli and if it makes sense the leaves of the original plant are much more delicate looking than those of the nicoli.

Thanks again.

[cfkingfish]

How cold did you get during that freak snow? Travelers' are a bit more cold hardy than people give them credit for - they are easy to burn, hard to kill.

[galveston1602]

Officially I dont think it was ever below freezing.

At my house the lowest reading was 31 at ground level  and that really only lasted about 3 or 4 hours.

[quaman58]

Yep. Ravenala Madagascariensis..I'd have thought that temps that would accompany snow would have toasted it. Guess they're a lot tougher than I thought. Mine really slow up in our cool winters & turn a bit yellow, but really make up for it in spring & summer. The only negative thing is the easy shredding of the leaves, unlike the GBOP. The less windy the location, the better they look.

Bret

[surgeon83]

I sent you a PM.  I am very excited to see this post.  That is only the third Traveller's palm I've seen in Galveston so far, mine counting as one.  You got a good deal on it too; I paid much more than that for mine.  It wasn't at the Galveston Home Depot, was it?  Until this spring, they NEVER had anything besides dead majesties and cat palms.  

I live in Fish village- we should meet sometime to check out each other's gardens.

Brian

Edit: Some evening pictures of mine (sorry, too dark)

Same time, with flash:

Judging by the size of the two newest leaves, I think this thing's starting to take off.  The tallest (2nd newest) leaf is 6' total.

[Walt]

Most definitely a traveler's palm. I, too, bought one from Home Depot about four years ago. It was maybe just a tad larger than your December 2004 photo.

It's been planted for at least three years now (went through three winters). This past winter all but three frond leaves were fried from my second worse radiational freeze in the nine years I've lived here.

My traveler's palm is recovering very fast and pumping out a new frond about every 27-28 days, maybe less. Today, to my surprise, it started pushing up two flowers. This will be the first time it bloomed.

My traveler's palm from a distance:

by waltcat100

Developing trunk of my traveler's palm:

by waltcat100

My traveler's palm as a nice sucker growing from its base but I'm reluctant to remove for fear of hurting the mother palm since it is recovering from the 2/14/06 freeze.

[surgeon83]

Here is the same plant in September 2005, right before Rita.  The main plant, already knocking on death's door, was finished off by the wind.

And as always, beautiful pictures, Walt.  Freeze or no freeze, yours currently has as many leaves as the ones around here.  Mine seems to let the oldest one die every time a new one opens up, holding a maximum of 7.  I'm not sure what the deal is.

[ruskinPalms]

Definite traveler's palm. I would like one of these but the sea/bay breeze around here is unrelenting and the one's I have seen around here are absolutely shredded. Bananas and GBOP often suffer the same fate.

[DoomsDave]

Galveston, Oh galveston!

I can see your Traveler's palms swayin'

Strelitzia nicolai are much shorter, denser and darker.

Travelers all the way.

Wow!  Snow on the TP?

They're tough, and not so tough.  Dave's Death Camp's Commandant mourns the souls of the multitude he has killed . . . .

dave

[galveston1602]

My travelers came from galveston HD and is so beat up by the wind its really not funny.  I guess im going to try to remove the suckers now that I think I know what it is.  Maybe ill be able to salvage those, anyone ever have any experience getting them off successfully?  

If id've known what this plant was, I definetly wouldnt have planted it where its at.   next to the house!

[paulgila]

i have not seen that many travellers palms but i was not aware that they "sucker".maybe i'm wrong... ???

[surgeon83]

(pohonkelapa @ Aug. 18 2006,01:31)

QUOTE

i have not seen that many travellers palms but i was not aware that they "sucker".maybe i'm wrong... ???

Yep, they sure do.  Most of the specimens we see pictures of have all the suckers trimmed off so we get more of a striking effect with one big fan.  

I tried to remove some suckers from mine when I took it out of its pot originally, and killed them all.  They seemed like they were coming directly out of the base of the main plant, with no detectible roots even one foot down.  I have been wondering if anyone has any advice as well.

[Walt]

Surgeon83: Here's a photo of my traveler's palm taken about a year ago. Once it fully regrows its crown is will be larger. I'm hoping now I can go 2-3 years (or more) without a leaf damaging freeze/frost.

I've read that there's two types of Ravanala madigascariensis and one suckers, the other doesn't.

My traveler's palm about one year ago:

by waltcat100

[DoomsDave]

They can sucker profusely, Sucka' . . . .

I've never had any luck removing and rooting them, either.

dave

[Jim in Los Altos]

Dave in SoCal, a couple of my Giant Birds are twenty feet tall with NO trunks yet. They definitely are at least as tall as Traveler's palms at this stage in their lives. I stand corrected though on the ones pictured though since everyone says they're Traveller's. I've had bad luck with them despite mild winters whereas my Streletzias keep groing at a feverous rate even in the winter.

[Walt]

At one time these were some nice traveler's palms. They were nice and full and then, the day I happened by and snapped this photo, the owner cut them way back. But then, even worse, the jerk cut them both down! Now there are two stubby trunks alongside the house.

Here's a guy that lives on a 3500 acre lake (you can see it in background) and because of the lake effect, he can grow just about what can be grown in south Florida, yet he doesn't take advantage of it. It almost made me sick to see these traveler's palms cut down.

by waltcat100

[Walt]

Here's the traveler's palm one year later. They were cut down the following year:

by waltcat100

[spockvr6]

Walt-

I saw a similar sight a few weeks ago.

Two houses down from my in-laws house there was the biggest mat of White Birds I have ever seen.  These things had to have been 30 ft tall if they were an inch.  And, the clump was thick with mature stems and probably covered an area 10 ft x 10 ft (at least).  I had no idea how long theyd been there other than "a long time".  I would guess it takes a few decades to get plants that tall?

Well, two weeks ago while driving down that street, something didnt look right to me.  Then it clicked!  The owner cut down every last Bird!  And, they dug out every single plant without a trace of what was once there.  

And...guess what they replaced it with?

St. Augustine sod!

[Walt]

Another suckering traveler's palm here in Lake Placid, Florida:

by waltcat100

[Walt]

And another Lake Placid suckering traveler's palm. Look at the size (pun intended) of that sucker!

by waltcat100