Odds of survival? Lightning strike, Royal Palm 70’ tall

[alex ftl]

Fort Lauderdale, after lightning strike or nearby strike.  Full crown collapse after 1 week. . 70+ feet tall, was very healthy prior to electric storm with 1000s of seeds a month.  Cannot find an exit hole from lightning.  What are the odds of recovery?

[idontknowhatnametuse]

It will recover for sure, but if it was my palm, I would cut the hanging fronds to remove weight on the crownshaft and let the palm make space for new fronds. Give it a lot of water.

[Looking Glass]

I think it is dead.   Time will tell, but it’s very rare for a palm to survive this.   It happens to very tall palms here in Florida.   They become lightening rods.   And lightning is common here.  You can probably start making plans for removal of that giant.  

[alex ftl]

Looks like it died unfortunately. I have no idea where to get the money to cut this down. On fixed income, social security. 

[Merlyn]

@alex ftl I'm not surprised the collapsed fronds all browned and died.  The seed pod and the new spear still look fairly green, and the canopy didn't fall off to one side.  I'd guess there's still a small chance of survival.  If that new spear opens up normally in a couple of weeks then it may live.  The risk is that there's a weak point in the trunk near the top, so in a hurricane or other big storm you could get catastrophic collapse in the future.  If it were my palm I'd cut it down asap.  I had about 40 water oaks in my lot cut down over the past 10 years, all were 70+ feet tall and starting to die.  There's only one left, I'm just avoiding the $2500 bill to chop it down.