Louisiana palms

[Xenon]

Where are all the Louisiana palm people? 

Spotted this massive Bismarckia right next to Audubon Park today 

[Xenon]

Took this pic a few weeks ago. These queen palms seem to be at their northern limit hanging on to dear life, they are directly on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Mandeville. It's a completely different world on the other side of the lake where healthy fat queens are everywhere. 

 

[vcrosstx]

I grew up in north Louisiana but have been in Dallas almost thirty years. Have queens been hardy in New Orleans the last couple decades? Feb 2021 wiped out a lot of palms all over Texas and it was terrible in Dallas. Did New Orleans get some unusually low temps in 2021? Shreveport did but not as bad as east and north Texas. . 

[Xenon]

  On 11/16/2024 at 9:23 PM, vcrosstx said:

I grew up in north Louisiana but have been in Dallas almost thirty years. Have queens been hardy in New Orleans the last couple decades? Feb 2021 wiped out a lot of palms all over Texas and it was terrible in Dallas. Did New Orleans get some unusually low temps in 2021? Shreveport did but not as bad as east and north Texas. . 

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No, New Orleans is too far east. Definitely dodged a bullet. Still looking 9B in NOLA 

[Xenon]

New Orleans Botanical Garden

Not cold hardy but sometimes you need a reminder of how beautiful Cyrtostachys is in person (obviously in the glass house) 

Beautiful Pinanga

 

[_nevi]

  On 11/16/2024 at 9:23 PM, vcrosstx said:

I grew up in north Louisiana but have been in Dallas almost thirty years. Have queens been hardy in New Orleans the last couple decades? Feb 2021 wiped out a lot of palms all over Texas and it was terrible in Dallas. Did New Orleans get some unusually low temps in 2021? Shreveport did but not as bad as east and north Texas. . 

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  On 11/16/2024 at 10:57 PM, Xenon said:

No, New Orleans is too far east. Definitely dodged a bullet. Still looking 9B in NOLA 

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Yes, the Feb 2021 event mid month (week of Valentines Day) was an extremely western (aka "Texas focused") cold snap event.  Those types of events bring less impact as you go eastward. 

Hence, what nearly rivaled (if not surpassed) 1989 in areas of Texas that period became more a "middling decadal event" as you got into NOLA (think highs staying low 30s, lows in the mid 20s, similar to 2014 cold snap in Texas/Louisiana). But even NOLA's temps was quite a hit when you see that the East Coast cities like Jacksonville, Savannah, Charleston, etc didn't even go below 40s during that period.

[_nevi]

  On 11/16/2024 at 8:56 PM, Xenon said:

Took this pic a few weeks ago. These queen palms seem to be at their northern limit hanging on to dear life, they are directly on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in Mandeville. It's a completely different world on the other side of the lake where healthy fat queens are everywhere. 

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  On 11/16/2024 at 10:57 PM, Xenon said:

No, New Orleans is too far east. Definitely dodged a bullet. Still looking 9B in NOLA 

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New Orleans area south of Lake Pontchartrain always had rather solid 9B, in fairness. Because even with the old USDA maps (the ones that included the 80s freezes), there was always the circle of 9B centered around that New Orleans area.

In contrast, the rest of the state has more share of the pain. Areas like Lake Charles, Lafayette/New Iberia, and Baton Rogue have experienced more frequent teens.

[_nevi]

Also, if anyone can get to the delta areas of Louisiana, it's possible that there's good tender palm specimen there. Some of those parts show up as zone 10 of the USDA maps, and there's significant encroachment of black mangrove in the former marshlands there.

The only limiting factor for cultivation would be quite simply that there isn't much population of note.

[happypalms]

  On 11/16/2024 at 7:44 PM, Xenon said:

Where are all the Louisiana palm people? 

Spotted this massive Bismarckia right next to Audubon Park today 

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Couple of shots of a bizzie there. 👍

[Xenon]

Wow damage in NOLA is just all over the place. Things generally look better on the west side around Kenner and Metairie down to at least I-10, there are some half green to mostly green queens, Livistona chinensis varying degrees of tip burn mostly, some orange-y washies. Mid-City/urban NOLA looks ok too. 

Then on the East (which is usually warmer I would guess) you can find completely bronze queens, robusta, CIDP, Livistona chinensis and even burned sagos especially further from Lake P towards HWY 90. The one majesty I saw at a church in the East was completely defoliated. Damage in this area is still hit and miss, with seemingly random warm and cold pockets. 

Checking out the West Bank/Gretna tomorrow 

Sorry didn't stop for pics but here are some bronze CIDP in the East 

 

And mostly fine dates at the City Park, cosmetic leaf burn

 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

I have traveled quite a bit in the Baton Rouge area and as far south as Thibodaux lately. Temperatures in this zone went down to between 6 and 13F, depending on location. It has only been about a week and a half since the historic incident.

Here are a few of my observations so far:

Sabals and windmills are of course intact. As are the pindos except for a very few that look a bit worse.

Mules are a mixed bag but most have taken a hit for sure. Some don't look too bad, others have fairly extensive frond burn.

95%+ of Washingtonia robusta and hybrids are fully bronzed but a fair amount have some green at the base of the petioles upon close inspection. I haven't seen any collapse yet except for quite isolated specimens and even those still have the main spear upright. 

W. filifera is not very common but the few that I have seen appear to be barely fazed.

Canaries are very brown and actually look worse around Thibodaux than around Baton Rouge, where some retain a modest amount of green. Disease (fusarium, leafhopper) has killed more than a few in just the past few years, in the warmest of weather, so their continued existence is somewhat precarious.

Sylvesters look bad but none I have seen have collapsed...yet. Medjools are in better shape.

Queens around Thibodaux haven't drooped yet substantially but the frond burn is there - from 25 to 90%. Right now they look salvageable but if they survive this in the long run, I'll be astonished. A few small ones around BR are toast.

Sagos are mostly all copper but mine was covered with a sheet and came through 8.6F with only slight damage.

Livistonas are quite a bit frosted but those sheltered around homes in the Thibodaux area are half and half.

Bismarcks, what few there are, are completely faded and look bad. Though they made it through 2018 and 2021..I am pretty sure they will succumb this time.

Citrus looks very rough. Extensive leaf curling and fading.

Ironically, the snow cover probably saved the sugar cane (root, stubble) with its 'blanket' of protection.

A lot of underbrush in the swamp has wilted or turned brown so it makes visibility excellent to see alot of those usually hidden Sabal louisiana, some of which are rather large.

[Xenon]

  On 2/2/2025 at 3:43 AM, Sabal_Louisiana said:

 

Citrus looks very rough. Extensive leaf curling and fading.

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Are you noticing brown leaves still attached to trees? Leaf drop is generally a good sign. Attached brown leaves generally means death. 

Citrus in NOLA look ok but then again it wasn't that cold here compared to areas away from the lake. 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

Xenon, I have seen it both ways around here lately but too be honest, not a lot of leaf drop (yet). The appearance on most is a faded hue or an orange brown color. I remember as a youth back in 1989 (8 to 11 degrees), citrus was pretty much destroyed in this area. The huge orange trees down in Plaquemines Parish survived that historic freeze only to be killed by saltwater flooding from Katrina some years later.

[Xenon]

Mostly green queens at Algiers Point (directly across the river from the French Quarter)

Meanwhile just a few miles south/southwest in outer Gretna and Terrytown it looks like this

 

Warm again in Metairie by the causeway. Across the causeway in Mandeville/Covington all Washies and Phoenix are very brown. 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

It's nice to know there are a few pockets that have remain unscathed, so it seems, anywhere on the northern Gulf Coast.

 

[_nevi]

The New Orleans area, as a whole dodged a bullet. Would have seen temps deep into the teens on the morning of Jan 23rd (they were already well into 20s after sundown on the 22nd), but enough upper-level clouds arrived overnight to limit radiational cooling.

But, I think there were deep teens/single digits not too far away. Though teens are more in Houma/Thibodaux (if those are included with NOLA), whereas single digits were more on Northshore (which I think was grouped as NOLA metro area until recently).

[Adam_NY]

I’m visiting on the Westbank now (from here but live in NY now). The cold damage here is extensive—worse than any of the photos above but maybe this is previous cold damage fully setting in. Most Phoenix and all queens are completely brown—the queens look like they’ll be toast. Washingtonias, Livistonias and sagos are all quite burned. 
 

What was the lowest low this winter in the metro area? Weather Underground data says 23 for Gretna but the damage looks worse than what I’d expect for that temp. Maybe the snow and multiple cold events have just hammered things repeatedly. 

[Tropicdoc]

Louisiana representing here! 
I hav been posting on the weather thread. New Orleans sits south of huge lake pontchartrain so north winds are moderated before they get to the city, not to mention the heat island. Directly on the south shore of the lake is a solid 9b. Lots of nice palms in lakeview. 
anyway, I’m in recovery mode here in Houma. I’m further south than the big easy but I don’t have the lake for help. 
mules recovering

b x pjc recovering

sabal unscathed 

C radicalis unscathed

T martianus recovering 

even B alfredii with green spear bud!

R excelsea recovering

A englerii maybe recovering (it’s too slow to tell)

canaries recovering 

it’s gonna look rough around here for a while.

i realized that in the past 4 years we have had 2 zone 8 freezes and 2 major hurricanes.

its time for a break!

[Robbertico18]

  On 2/23/2025 at 4:48 PM, Tropicdoc said:

Louisiana representing here! 
I hav been posting on the weather thread. New Orleans sits south of huge lake pontchartrain so north winds are moderated before they get to the city, not to mention the heat island. Directly on the south shore of the lake is a solid 9b. Lots of nice palms in lakeview. 
anyway, I’m in recovery mode here in Houma. I’m further south than the big easy but I don’t have the lake for help. 
mules recovering

b x pjc recovering

sabal unscathed 

C radicalis unscathed

T martianus recovering 

even B alfredii with green spear bud!

R excelsea recovering

A englerii maybe recovering (it’s too slow to tell)

canaries recovering 

it’s gonna look rough around here for a while.

i realized that in the past 4 years we have had 2 zone 8 freezes and 2 major hurricanes.

its time for a break!

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Curious about the alfredii, was it protected or planted under canopy?

[Tropicdoc]

No but I’ve been contemplating taking a chainsaw to them for several years.

they always look terrible. 

[Sabal_Louisiana]

 

I see many examples of non native palms escaping cultivation in southern Louisiana.

Of course, the Sabal palmetto volunteers are ubiquitous, and I've seen them grow as weeds in practically every parish in the region along fences, ditches, roads, in vacant and wooded lots, etc.

Here are some L. chinensis growing 'wild' along a bayou just south of Houma, past the Airport. The recent cold event has them almost totally frosted right now.

 

 

[Xenon]

Lake Charles today 

[SeanK]

  On 4/30/2025 at 8:22 PM, Xenon said:

Lake Charles today 

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Hit bad but survived.

[jwitt]

  On 4/30/2025 at 8:22 PM, Xenon said:

Lake Charles today 

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I see officially Lake Charles saw 6f and like 6 inches of snow.  Robustas look near fully recovered. 

Impressive!