Jubaea - "El Capitan"

[osideterry]

2 years ago I was doing a google search on Jubaea chilensis, and came acrossed this photo. I'm glad I "saved" it because the website no longer exists.

This palm was touted as the single largest and oldest palm on Earth, and had the name "El Capitan". I'm sure the photo was from Chile.

Note the width-to-height ratio, and this thing is a monster.

Anyone have any info?

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Awesome ,imagine how old that thing is !

[Adam from Oz]

PURE PALM P*RN!

Cheers,

Adam

[Exotic Life]

Ok, that's huge!

[jam99]

I don't mean to be fussy, but it's la capitana (feminine)

BTW, have anyone heard from Diego since he moved from Chile to Switzerland?

Cheers, Jan

[Don Little]

That thing is a monster, if only it showed a person standing next to it for comparison.  Thanks for posting Terry.

[palmislandRandy]

There IS a person next to it :laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh: . Approximately  how old would this baby be?   Randy

[osideterry]

My guess is if the crown is 20ft wide, the palm is over 100ft.

[Don Little]

(palmisland @ Nov. 08 2007,21:09)

QUOTE

There IS a person next to it :laugh:  :laugh:  :laugh: . Approximately  how old would this baby be?   Randy

My mistake, I thought that was a blade of grass.    

[elHoagie]

(jam99 @ Nov. 08 2007,14:07)

QUOTE

I don't mean to be fussy, but it's la capitana (feminine)

BTW, have anyone heard from Diego since he moved from Chile to Switzerland?

Cheers, Jan

Good to see you back Jan!  I think Diego posted for a couple months after his move to Switzerland, but I haven't seen anything from him in quite a while.  He was definitely the Jubaea expert.

[cagary]

Magnificent palm! Thanks for posting.

You mean to tell me that its so big and so old that it actually has a name? I know some of the ancient redwood trees have names, but a palm? Amazing!

Anyone know of any other palms that have names?

And the great thing is that it looks healthy as could be. Is lightning common in that area?

[happ]

And the great thing is that it looks healthy as could be. Is lightning common in that area?

gary

Chile has a climate similar to California so lightning is uncommon.

Certainly agree that magnificent palm trees should be named.  Do you have any particular palms in mind?

[J. australis]

When Diego posted the pic originally, he said it was believed to be 1600 y.o.

Make of that what you will....but it's a shipload taller than the other antique Jubs around it.

[osideterry]

J. australis - Thanks for reviving this thread with a bit of actual info.

I tried to look into the archives to find Diego's posts, but I'm not registered to go there I guess. Any veteran members willing to dig in the archives for Diego's post regarding this palm I consider one of the wonders of the world?

[_Keith]

Is this the thread you were referring to?  

http://palmtalk.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboar...rint;f=1;t=4789

And here is an eBay seller, with that same picture posted, making the 1600 year old claim.

http://cgi.ebay.com/10-Seed....iewItem

[madagascarbob]

Theres a house in Santa Barbara in the Bario with a front yard about 30 feet  by 10  feet  that has about 7 that must be over 100 years old , Very strange looking .

[freakypalmguy]

(madagascarbob @ Feb. 07 2008,08:01)

QUOTE

Theres a house in Santa Barbara in the Bario with a front yard about 30 feet  by 10  feet  that has about 7 that must be over 100 years old , Very strange looking .

Oooh! We need to see pics of that please.

Matt

[JD in the OC]

one eBay seller calls this the "Palm of myth and lore"  LOL  

[osideterry]

The archive link Keith found was about hybridizing Jubutiagrus, but toward the end Gaston provided images of historical Jubaea. The first two images show the same palm in 1890, and current. The next two images are of a 750 year old palm named La Serena. He mentions it as being older than "La Capitana".

[M@ximus]

This  is undoubtedly  my  favorite  palm

I'm  growing  the  Traditional  form,  the  blue  form (RPS)  and  2  different upright form  from  Naples   bg  and  from  a  park  near  Rome

Allegate  pics  of  2 upright  form  

M@x

[M@ximus]

the  other one!!  M@x

[Kris]

Dear Max  

lovely stills of a lovely palm..

thanks & love,

Kris  

[iamjv]

I happen to have a secondary pic of La Capitana from that same web site and this one does have a man in the picture for scale...  Jv

[_Keith]

(osideterry @ Feb. 07 2008,21:39)

QUOTE

The archive link Keith found was about hybridizing Jubutiagrus, but toward the end Gaston provided images of historical Jubaea. The first two images show the same palm in 1890, and current. The next two images are of a 750 year old palm named La Serena. He mentions it as being older than "La Capitana".

By the way, I searched the archives, but did not find this.  However Google has such great coverage of this forum, active and archives, I simply did a google with Diego, Palmtalk, and Jubeae and found it in no time.

[Kris]

Dear Imjv  

lovely still and the man standing looks like an Astronut standing near the Nasa space shuttle_Voyager series !

God only knows how many tons it would weight ? any guesses on that !

And i have a question like always..will the Jubea hybrids like jubea X butia or F1 & F2 will they live no long or is it a trait of a pure jubea.and if the El Capitan_'Jubea' is still alive,have any one of you attempted to collect seeds from these old giants...since i personally feel that they have seen test of time & nature,so their genes will be very highly disease resistant & also will be a joy for one to propogate such old living specimens ? think about it ! its living history...

thanks & love,

Kris  

[DoomsDave]

Hmm.

Why'd Diego move to Suisse?

Jubes will grow there but . . .

[iamjv]

Kris,

 Yes that man sure looks small compared to that juby!  Lots and lots of weight...   It would be nice to see this palm in person....   I agree with you, wish we could some how collect seeds from this particular palm.  Jv

[Kai]

I'd love to get my hands one some seeds from that tree. Imagine: seedlings from a 1600 year old, unchanged genepool! Very interesting!

[Zac in NC]

Yeah, I remember when Diego '007' posted this the first time and the Jub Club. Good old times, but I haven't seen him on here in a long time.

Zac

[mjff]

Looking at the surroundings (background and proximity of other trees) in the photos and the trees themselves it appears to me that the Jubaeas in posts 1, 19, and 23 are all different trees.  Don't get me wrong they are awesome, but I don't think the pictures are of the same tree.

[osideterry]

Agree. Posts 1 and 19 show 3 different palms, and there is no way post 1 and 23 are the same either. They all have a stepped quality at about the same point, maybe 40 ft up.

[iamjv]

Can't speak for post 19, altough I've seen those pics before as well... and they are clearly not the same as 1 & 23.   However, as the poster of post 23, I did get the pic from the same web site as the pic in post 1 (which I also have) & which claimed to be 'La Capitana'.   If memory serves me, it seems post 23 was shot from the opposite angle of post 1, for I had asked the same question way back when.   None the less, they could still be different palms...  albeit nice ones!  Jv

[Caryota_gigas]

1 & 23 cant be the same. There is no way the palm in pic 23 could be 1600 years old. This isnt a terribly acurate way of measuring, but the palm in 23 is approx 10 times taller to the centre of the crown of the man, whereas this palm in Auckland NZ is also approx 10 times taller than me (6ft) to the centre of the crown, yet it is only around 150 years old. They must grow real slow in their native land.

[mjff]

The palm in post 23 has another Jubaea growing so close that the other tree's fronds touch it's trunk, but the palm in post 1 is much further away from any other trees, so if they are the same I wonder where the other Jubaea went?

[Kris]