Rhapis in Full Sun at Artery Burger

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

Drove by the Artery Burger I drive by all the time when I noticed this Rhapis in the parking lot, in full sun.

Any idea on the ID?

[DoomsDave]

Here's a close up.

The Shoe is the usual size 12, 12" 30 cm long.

[DoomsDave]

Artery Burger is Tommy's which makes GREAT evil chiliburgers, you can hear your coronaries clog after eating one . . . . .

(The devil is the CEO, I'm sure!)

[DoomsDave]

And a funny car in the parking lot.

I know, someone spent some dough on it . . .

(Probably wears red shoes on occasion . . . . )

dave

[Jim in Los Altos]

Looks like R. excelsa to me. I have one that size that is in full afternoon sun and it looks great. No sun scorch and the leaves are evenly green too. When I first planted it, it burned a bit but quickly acclimated to the sun.

[Fred Zone 10A]

Rhapis excelsa

[PalmGuyWC]

It's a Japanese clone of Rhapis excelsa.  Looks dwarf to me, probably Koban. It would look lots better if it had some part shade. It only takes one day over 100F to burn them. They should be dark green, not part yellow.

Dick

[Jeff Searle]

Dick,

    Are you fairly sure that this is Koban? I'm just wondering how and if you can really tell for sure from a picture. Only because this would be highly unusual to see it growing on a commercial property, and due to the full sun condition, this would cause a much smaller leaf, more compact growth and a more yellow appearance to the plant. And how readily available are these to get?

   I'm by no means a Rhapis expert, what do you and others think?

Jeff

[PalmGuyWC]

Jeff,

The Rhapis could be a brand X variety, but I was looking at the wider blades and the fact that each frond only has about 5 or 6 segments. R. koban was just a wild guess, but I think more of the Japanese varieties have spilled into general cultivation on the West Coast than they have in Florida.

The dwarf Japanese varieties seem to hold their individual characteristics better in Calif. than Florida because of our cooler nights. Bill Shannon had several Japanese green dwarfs growing at his place in Hollywood Fla. and after a few years, they all looked almost the same because of ideal growing conditions and warm nights. To keep them really dwarf, they have to be grown in small pots and their roots constrained...and then a little more torture with cool nights. In other words, they have to be a little stressed to keep them small and to show their individual characteristics. The Japanese even trim the roots, but I've never gone that far.

I used to push mine with as much light (and heat) as I could give them, but I've learned they grow just as well with light shade and they are much greener and healther looking and I don't run the risk of burning them.

Dick

[osideterry]

I think you are right about Tommy's, mostly based on the intense pleasure followed by shame one experiences from a single visit. I once was driving to a photo shoot, and made the mistake of driving through Tommy's on the way. The burger exploded, leaving a chili stain all the way down my shirt. I was late because I had to stop and buy new clothes.

Tommy Burger - I wish I knew how to quit you.

[Creekside]

Rhapis, especially excelsa, have remarkably different characteristics in sun vs. shade, like color, number of leaflets and number & height of stems.  This is almost certainly R. excelsa.

[MattyB]

Rhapis 'green mound'

[PalmGuyWC]

Terry,

You guys are living in a very addicitive society in La La land. Chille burgers and Dypsis and God knows what else!

Cathy, I should have said Rhapis excelsa Var. Koban.  Most of the Japanese clones are R. excelsa but cultivars with different characteristics. Some have few and wide leaf blades, while others have many blades and are thin. Some have a heavy texture and some don't. Some grow taller than others, and R. excelsa Var. Kodaruma is a dwarf. The differences are very subtle, and some folks say they all look alike, but there are distinct differences and growth preferences.

Dick

[Jeff Searle]

Dick,

 I have a question, these varieties of R. excelsa I would presume all have the same flower structure as the normal R. excelsa, right? Just the leaf and habit of growth are slightly different.

Jeff

[PalmGuyWC]

Yes, Jeff, you are correct...the flowers are the same except the smaller growing varieties might have a smaller inflorescence.

I call the Rhapis most often found in Florida, "The giant Florida Green." It's a vary robust Rhapis with large fronds and can grow to be 20 feet high. It might interest you to know that most of them originated from Paul Drummond, who went to a lot of trouble to find male plants to mix with his hedges of female plants.

He learned how to pollenate them and used to produce thousands of seeds yearly. He sold many seeds to S. Fla growers, and I know he sent several thousand seeds to Isreal. I expect most of the Rhapis found in S. Fla. came from Paul's seeds. He also used to sell divisions of his plants at the S. Fla. palm sales. You can ride around in S. Miami, Coral Gables, or Coconut Grove and where you see large clumps of Rhapis growing in front of older homes, you can be assured they probably came from Paul's Rhapis.

I have some of the original clones from Paul's growing here in Walnut Creek.

Dick

[SubTropicRay]

Love the car.....and the palm.

[Creekside]

Dick, since you seem to know about the origins of a lot of the Rhapis in Florida, I'm hoping you might know something about a man named Paul Mears, who owned a nursery in Sarasota at least 40 or 50 years ago.  He specialized in Asian palms and bamboo, and I've been told he was a pioneer in the crossing of Butia x Syagrus.   Almost all of my R. excelsa (yes, they are huge,) came from his old nursery property, where I lived for 10+ years during the 80's and 90's.  (A nursery like that, left to its own for decades, is an amazing jungle of a place to explore: besides the Rhapis, there were groves of bamboo, L. chinensis 40 feet tall, mature variegated Syagrus and much more.)  I'd love to know more about Mr. Mears, but almost no one I've talked to seems to have heard of him.

[PalmGuyWC]

Catherine,

I wish I could help you, but I know nothing of Mr. Mears. Most of activities were in the Miami area. Maybe some old timer on the W. coast of Fla. might be abe to help you. Going back 50 years would be stretching it, even for me. I bet someone associated with Selby Gardens might know something of Mr. Mears.

Dick

[Palm Hound]

What gave you more pleasure, seeing the Rhapis or eating one of those burgers? That is how you know if you are a true palm nut or not.

The real Dave from So Cal, Dave

[eastern.nurseries]

I reckon Rhapis flower varies widely as does seed size and colour, Some Japanese types like Aikokuden have hermaphrodite flowers. Towaden flower can be very long. These Japanese green types all have different character that is not obvious to all.