Hello, I am new to this site so I hope I’m posting this in the right place. I have a large palm in my yard it’s about 20 years old. I am in zone 9 (Central Florida). Recently I have noticed that a portion of the bark is bulging out and cracking. It looks like roots are growing out of this spot but it is half way up the trunk of the tree. Anyone experience this before or know what is happening? Is it a sign of illness? Thank you! 

I’ve seen this behavior mostly on Washingtonia palms. I’m not sure what the cause of this is, but other trees I’ve seen that has those is growing fine.

I wonder if a sprinkler had been splashing it for an extended period.

Thank you for the responses. It’s definitely not due to excess water. We don’t have any sprinklers over there and it’s been very dry around here lately. It kind of makes me think of aerial roots. Similar to how some smaller house plants like orchids will send roots out into the air to get more water or nutrients. I’ve never heard of palms doing this, but I’m not an expert, so I thought I’d ask and see if anyone else had seen this before. 

Some chamaedorea varieties does the same aerial roots.

I’ve seen this on various palms including Syagrus romanzoffiana and Washingtonia. One common thing I’ve noticed it that some of these specimens have been transplanted as already trunking, then bulge once roots spread into the earth. Perhaps the sudden bulge in trunk diameter promotes roots to try to grow from that point…?

Phoenix palms grow aerial roots like mad, there is one near me with roots up above head height.  If the tissue isn't squishy black or smells rotten, then it probably is okay.  I'd agree with Tim, maybe a good guess is that it was in a pot for several years and had started "pencil pointing" up to around that ~4 foot mark.  Then it was planted and started growing "normal" and healthy again.  Thus it bulged out.  That can also happen if it was planted and never fertilized, thus it grew unhealthy for several years.  I'd leave it alone and just keep an eye on it.

On 6/9/2024 at 6:57 PM, NikkiD said:

Hello, I am new to this site so I hope I’m posting this in the right place. I have a large palm in my yard it’s about 20 years old. I am in zone 9 (Central Florida). Recently I have noticed that a portion of the bark is bulging out and cracking. It looks like roots are growing out of this spot but it is half way up the trunk of the tree. Anyone experience this before or know what is happening? Is it a sign of illness? Thank you! 

I actually take an even less concerned position here than my already-not-concerned fellow palmtalkers.  For whatever reason, this is super common in Phoenix and Washingtonia palms.  There’s absolutely nothing whatsoever to worry about.  Might be kind of ugly but it’s part of what makes palms interesting.

@NikkiD I found the photo of the local Phoenix Sylvestris.  The roots go up the trunk easily 6-7 feet.  It looks funky but is totally healthy:

On 6/10/2024 at 10:11 PM, NikkiD said:

Thank you for the responses. It’s definitely not due to excess water. We don’t have any sprinklers over there and it’s been very dry around here lately. It kind of makes me think of aerial roots. Similar to how some smaller house plants like orchids will send roots out into the air to get more water or nutrients. I’ve never heard of palms doing this, but I’m not an expert, so I thought I’d ask and see if anyone else had seen this before. 

I was leaning towards this when I asked about sprinklers.