Pritchardia hillebrandii maturing

[Missi]

This pretty little palm, planted right outside my front porch, just put out her first flowers. I think she’s happy to have not been burned back the past couple winters.

[Harry’s Palms]

That’s amazing. I have one that is much larger and never shown signs of flowering. It doesn’t get cold enough here to really hurt it but it does push out a few fronds every once in a while that have a bit of brown on the edges . I just trim those off after the fronds open. The fronds get big on these, they are beautiful palms ….and no teeth ! Harrythis will be the last year I have to trim it so close. It is next to a narrow pathway and the fronds , when open, block access! It is now over head for my wife and I. I had no idea how large the fronds get when I planted it 25 years ago as a seedling. My wife gave me grief for planting it there. Over the weekend we were doing yard work and she called me over to the side of the house “ you were right , this palm provides a wonderful canopy “ . Now she can see my vision . As it was growing and I saw how big the fronds get I thought how wonderful it would be to look up at them fully opened over head. I had no idea it would take so long. Harry

[quaman58]

I agree, that's very cool that yours is flowering a such a relatively small size. These seem to take their sweet time to flower in my area, as opposed to some of the others, like beccariana and minor. My neighbor has one with at least 15 feet of clear trunk that flowered for the first time this year (at about 18 years old.) 

[Missi]

On 7/8/2024 at 9:32 AM, Harry’s Palms said:

That’s amazing. I have one that is much larger and never shown signs of flowering. It doesn’t get cold enough here to really hurt it but it does push out a few fronds every once in a while that have a bit of brown on the edges . I just trim those off after the fronds open. The fronds get big on these, they are beautiful palms ….and no teeth ! Harrythis will be the last year I have to trim it so close. It is next to a narrow pathway and the fronds , when open, block access! It is now over head for my wife and I. I had no idea how large the fronds get when I planted it 25 years ago as a seedling. My wife gave me grief for planting it there. Over the weekend we were doing yard work and she called me over to the side of the house “ you were right , this palm provides a wonderful canopy “ . Now she can see my vision . As it was growing and I saw how big the fronds get I thought how wonderful it would be to look up at them fully opened over head. I had no idea it would take so long. Harry

Uh oh! Lol Looks like I might have to be doing the same in a couple years! Scissors ✂️ I didn’t think it would get so large. I swear I looked up canopy size on Palmpedia before planting it there 🤔😵‍💫🥴

Yours is lovely! Thank you so much for sharing it and your experience with it!! For me, it has been a relatively quick grower. Probably doesn’t hurt that isn’t not too far from the septic 😂

[Missi]

On 7/8/2024 at 1:36 PM, quaman58 said:

I agree, that's very cool that yours is flowering a such a relatively small size. These seem to take their sweet time to flower in my area, as opposed to some of the others, like beccariana and minor. My neighbor has one with at least 15 feet of clear trunk that flowered for the first time this year (at about 18 years old.) 

Hmmmmm. I wonder what would cause it to flower at such a “young age”. Any idea?

[quaman58]

3 hours ago, Missi said:

Hmmmmm. I wonder what would cause it to flower at such a “young age”. Any idea?

Just a happy palm that’s getting what it needs🙂. 

[Tracy]

my Pritchardia hillebrandii has been producing seed for several years now in Carlsbad.   I was just cleaning up the trunk earlier,  removing some old retained leaf bases and snapped a photo.

I wonder if climate plays a factor in when they produce their first flowers?

[Cape Garrett]

I'm in SW Florida and mine opened it's first flowers last year at about 5 and a half to 6 foot of trunk.  Slow to flower for me.  Likely 14 years from planting a 3 gallon.  Finally have some seeds working on ripening now for the first time.

[Stevetoad]

That is crazy. one of mine flowered for the first time only after having about 6-7 feet for clear trunk. My other one I got at the exact same time and exact same size was planted in full shade and grew a lot slower. and is now in full sun but about half the size and hasn't tried to flower year at all. 

[Cape Garrett]

Just snapped these pics just now.  Seeding for the first time.  Definitely faster in sun than shade.  She gets sun all day now.

[Tracy]

This is a Specimen acquired as possibly a Pritchardia hillebrandii.   As it grew I don't think that was fulfilled.  I don't have Don Hodel's book on Pritchardia to key this out.  Given the prevalence of hybrid Pritchardia in the trade here in California, I might not be able to key it to a single species anyway.  I don't recall it ever pushing out a successful inflorescence that resulted in flowers let alone fruit.

Thoughts on it's id are welcome. 

[Stevetoad]

8 hours ago, Tracy said:

This is a Specimen acquired as possibly a Pritchardia hillebrandii.   As it grew I don't think that was fulfilled.  I don't have Don Hodel's book on Pritchardia to key this out.  Given the prevalence of hybrid Pritchardia in the trade here in California, I might not be able to key it to a single species anyway.  I don't recall it ever pushing out a successful inflorescence that resulted in flowers let alone fruit.

Thoughts on it's id are welcome. 

Yours does look a little different than hillebrandii to me. Here’s mine that hits fits hillebrandii about perfectly. 

[Stevetoad]

Oops. Forgot to add pics. Fruit on a quarter for scale. 

[R-Banger]

Man how do you guys get the leaf baes off on these? Mine are hanging on for dear life on my Hillebrandii.Thought they would eventually pull off.

[tim_brissy_13]

19 hours ago, Tracy said:

This is a Specimen acquired as possibly a Pritchardia hillebrandii.   As it grew I don't think that was fulfilled.  I don't have Don Hodel's book on Pritchardia to key this out.  Given the prevalence of hybrid Pritchardia in the trade here in California, I might not be able to key it to a single species anyway.  I don't recall it ever pushing out a successful inflorescence that resulted in flowers let alone fruit.

Thoughts on it's id are welcome. 

Hard to say especially with the possibility of hybrids, but a good trait to narrow down possibilities is checking for lepidia on the underside of fronds. If there’s none, it’s likely P hillebrandii (or a hybrid with dominant traits). If there’s even some scattered lepidia it’s something else and nearly impossible to guess without fully developed inflorescences or fruit. For what it’s worth I don’t see any obvious traits that rule out P hillebrandii from the photos. Maybe the fronds could be a tad flatter than typical but I think there’s a bit of variability. 

[Harry’s Palms]

 

2 hours ago, R-Banger said:

Man how do you guys get the leaf baes off on these? Mine are hanging on for dear life on my Hillebrandii.Thought they would eventually pull off.

I was able to get them loose after the trunk was about 2’ below the “ still green “ portion of bases. The bases near the ground came loose with a stiff tug. I then cleaned the fibrous stuff off and moved up the trunk , sometimes using a carpet cutter to aid . I was careful not to cut into the trunk itself. The bits on the trunk ,after trimming , brush off after a while . Harry

Mine is not as tall as @tim_brissy_13 and I have been slowly working on this for a while . I work on it about once a year. It ain’t the fastest growing palm here in SoCal.

It’s about time to do more , perhaps the lower two or three rows at this point . 
edit: I guess it was @Tracy Palm I was referring to , oops! Harry

[quaman58]

In looking at everybody else’s hillibrandii, I am always struck by the fact that it’s a relatively narrow trunk species. Yet the one that I got from Floribunda is just a stocky monster. My guess is that they do their best to keep keep cross pollination from happening, but I’m a little suspicious when looking at this mine.

[Phoenikakias]

1 hour ago, quaman58 said:

In looking at everybody else’s hillibrandii, I am always struck by the fact that it’s a relatively narrow trunk species. Yet the one that I got from Floribunda is just a stocky monster. My guess is that they do their best to keep keep cross pollination from happening, but I’m a little suspicious when looking at this mine.

I was struck too by the fact that the hillebrandii (so the tag) in the Kew Gardens is narrowly trunked but more so with regard to shattaueri! 

[Stevetoad]

7 hours ago, R-Banger said:

Man how do you guys get the leaf baes off on these? Mine are hanging on for dear life on my Hillebrandii.Thought they would eventually pull off.

I never cut mine off. Once it got to a certain height and started to flower the old leaf bases just fell off with the lightest pull. 

[quaman58]

The base and crown of mine. The crown has a diameter at least 4 meters; it’s a big boy!

[Stevetoad]

5 hours ago, quaman58 said:

The base and crown of mine. The crown has a diameter at least 4 meters; it’s a big boy!

Man I’m awful at IDing pritchardia but yours looks different than hillebrandii too.  Very strong chance I’m wrong though. 

[tim_brissy_13]

Everyone get some close up shots of the underside of the fronds while they’re within reach! May not give a positive ID but could narrow down which species. 

[Tracy]

On 5/3/2026 at 4:21 AM, tim_brissy_13 said:

Hard to say especially with the possibility of hybrids, but a good trait to narrow down possibilities is checking for lepidia on the underside of fronds. If there’s none, it’s likely P hillebrandii (or a hybrid with dominant traits). If there’s even some scattered lepidia it’s something else and nearly impossible to guess without fully developed inflorescences or fruit. For what it’s worth I don’t see any obvious traits that rule out P hillebrandii from the photos. Maybe the fronds could be a tad flatter than typical but I think there’s a bit of variability.