Washingtonia Huh

[_Keith]

What is the easiest way to tell the difference between robusta, filifera, and filibusta, in words and/or pictures?

[Coloradoboi]

Good question - I always get confused too.

Robustas tend to grow taller, with skinnier trunks.  Filifera tend to be shorter, with larger trunks.

[DoomsDave]

Pure filiferas have green petioles where they join the trunk.  They also have a lot more fibers on the leaves when young.  As they get larger, they get the fat trunks.

Robustas are reddish-brown at the leaf bases.

Hybrids are reddish-brown at the leaf bases but also have fibres on the leaves.

Pics to follow when I get out of the Dark Tower.

dave

[Pivi]

Dave, these are general things that we all (most of us) know.

But robusta also has fibres.

How to know for sure is it robusta or filibusta?

[surgeon83]

People may interpret these pictures differntly, but here's my take.

Filiferas (the big ones, at least)- also classic filifera trunk in the right foreground:

More filiferas (notice the very rough trunks- there are perfect examples of trunk differences in my town, I just haven't gotten pictures of these yet):

Filiferas (the tall ones, at least, and probably filifera because of the trunks and because they look like they pre-date 1989 and the 1960s too for that matter):

Filibusta (notice shinier, greener, firmer leaves with red leaf bases which are retained on the trunk- even though this is a young palm, mature robustas often retain the same red-brown boots unless removed):

Sorry, I have no pictures of anything I think is a pure robusta.

[surgeon83]

Pretty much nothing but pure filiferas here, with classic rough, stout trunks, relatively narrow greyer-green leaves:

[Kris]

Dear Brian  

Fentastic stills and the resolution is quite yummy..

And i must say the filifera's in your stills were much close to filibusta's in trunk thickness,but i did see a still posted by mike in a another thread.they were like huge concreate pillers of linken mosulioum in washington..i hope my filifera grows like that..

thanks & Love,

Kris  

[NBTX11]

Filifera:

Filibusta:

Filibusta in foreground, Filifera in background:

[Kris]

Dear Jim  

thanks for the stills and explination and am glad that you have tried both the washy's near-by ! in years to come it will be easy to explain this fact to our new members.

lots of love,

Kris  

[Pivi]

Hey all,

you are putting pictures in this topic but no one explaind for sure how to tell the difference between filibusta and robusta (especially young).

It's easy to tell apart robusta and filifera.

Dave said filibusta has fibres, but for me that's not the way to know for sure since robusta has fibres too...

[Kris]

lets see filibusta leaves..

[Kris]

leaf fronds of filibusta..

[Kris]

trunk base sec.of the filibusta..

[Kris]

A Leaf of a filibusta..

[Kris]

Now lets see the entire palm which is just few months old !  :cool:

[Pivi]

few monts??? wow

[Kris]

Now lets see my favouriate of the washy's_The Filifera's (Purer the better)...

Here are the visuals of a 2 yesr old filifera...

[Kris]

Most if not all who has seen stills of this filifera are happy that its somewhat pure enough...

now lets see the crow section of this fan palm but what is most striking in filifera from other washy species is that filifera's leaves & fronds are more spread across & are dam stiff while the robustas & filibustas are more taller & straight up looking the sky and is less tempered compared to the filifera's..

here are the visuals..

[Kris]

now a arieal shot of the filifera crown sec..

[Kris]

trunk close-up's !

[Kris]

One more close-up shot !

[Kris]

Now lets see that entire palm of this washy filifera..

[Exotic Life]

Nice picture's here! Thanks for sharing people i love this species...

Robbin

[galveston1602]

Not my pics but,

heres 2 pics that Ive referenced before

Washy filifera

washy robusta

Around here with both of them (and their hybrids) growing litterally side by side ive found that other than the trunk size the easiest way to tell em apart when full size is the color of the green, filifera are a more pale green, robusta are a deep dark green.

[Kris]

dear Allen  

fentastic stills and they are self explainatery...thanks for the stills ! iam shure that it will be of emmence help for all washy growers.

love,

kris  

[simona]

Well, well well....

Now there, as the most popular palm tree here in Jordan [Amman, USDA Zone 9] seems to be the Washingtonia, I also tryed to find out the difference between the two species.

I say two species, because only  these two are officially recognised as far as I know http://plants.usda.gov/java....d=WASHI

Species  Washingtonia filifera (Linden ex André) H. Wendl. -- California fan palm P

Species  Washingtonia robusta H. Wendl. -- Washington fan palm P

It seems that, another difference between the two species (among those differences already mentioned above) might be in the presnce of the spines.

Washis having naked petioles, or those which show rudimentary spines are Filiferas. Here, some pictures of a Filifera:

]

[Xavierdlc61887]

(Coloradoboi @ Oct. 31 2007,15:34)

QUOTE

Good question - I always get confused too.

Robustas tend to grow taller, with skinnier trunks.  Filifera tend to be shorter, with larger trunks.

i dont post often and I'm no expert but I am thinking the size of trunk is determined by amount of light it recieves.....or am i wrong???? ok well yeah me to i am kinda confused by the size of trunk

Also just an observation if u see all these pics in the thread the palms that are along walls, planted close to other plants the trunk tends to compete for light and thus grows thinner but straight up. Then if you see the fat trunks they are more in the open and thus grow thicker. ok well that is my observation hope everyone agrees here

[GREENHAND]

Allens pictures show perfectly the difference between the two. i have never lost a filifera to the cold but i have lost two robustas( small ones) to the cold weather , i think filiferas are the way to go in zone 8 if you can find pure ones. filibustas are good to but the fronds burn easyer than pure filiferas, but they are tough enough!

[simona]

You might find this page helpful: http://www.floridata.com/ref/W/wash_fil.cfm

[simona]

So, the main difference being established [Washingtonia filifera having green, relatively unarmed  leafstems - no thorns] you might also find interesting that Filifera Washis bare edible fruit.

The small fruits are harvested when ripe and eaten fresh or dried, or made into jellies and drinks

The berry-like, small fruits are brownish-black and have a thin, sweet pulp that tastes somewhat like dates or butterscotch.

The seeds are also edible and were widely used by Native Americans who ground them into meal for making bread or porridge.

Text: http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/edible-palms.html

Synonyms:

Washingtonia filifera (L. Linden) H. Wendl.

BRFI2 Brahea filamentosa (Fenzi) H. Wendl.

BRFI3 Brahea filifera hort. ex S. Wats.

NEFI2 Neowashingtonia filamentosa (Fenzi) Sudworth

PRFI Pritchardia filamentosa Fenzi

PRFI2 Pritchardia filifera L. Linden

WAFI2 Washingtonia filamentosa (Fenzi) Kuntze

WAFIR Washingtonia filifera (L. Linden) H. Wendl. var. robusta Parish

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=WAFI