Calyptrogyne greishbregtiana

[happypalms]

Another rare palm tolerant of my climate that’s growing great in the greenhouse and in the ground. There is also an old one in my regional botanical garden. So a nice palm for my area. My first interest in this palm was not so much its rarity or beauty but the pollination characteristics and the challenges that are involved in hand pollination. With bats being the sole pollinator in there habitat in South America and obviously none know pollinators in Australia, I have set my gardening skills a challenge for a project over the years to come always learning about new plants not sure how it will go but I can only try. 

[realarch]

This is one of my favorite species and just spectacular in the garden. The cultivar I acquired has the entire leaf, or mostly entire, as opposed to the more pinnate leaf form which I find is less attractive. They are relatively fast growing, easy to take care of, and striking as a specimen palm. 

Interesting story, for years they would bloom and never set seed and having only one rare species of bat in Hawaii, chances of pollination were nil. Then a species of bird called a Brazilian cardinal migrated from the northern islands and started showing up in East Hawaii. They are frequent visitors when the flowers of Calyptrogyne are in bloom and are obvious pollinators since the palms now regularly produce viable seed since their arrival. The flower spikes are literally their playground, they are always hopping from inflorescence to inflorescence.

A few photos with a shovel for scale, these are not diminutive little palms. 

Tim

[happypalms]

44 minutes ago, realarch said:

This is one of my favorite species and just spectacular in the garden. The cultivar I acquired has the entire leaf, or mostly entire, as opposed to the more pinnate leaf form which I find is less attractive. They are relatively fast growing, easy to take care of, and striking as a specimen palm. 

Interesting story, for years they would bloom and never set seed and having only one rare species of bat in Hawaii, chances of pollination were nil. Then a species of bird called a Brazilian cardinal migrated from the northern islands and started showing up in East Hawaii. They are frequent visitors when the flowers of Calyptrogyne are in bloom and are obvious pollinators since the palms now regularly produce viable seed since their arrival. The flower spikes are literally their playground, they are always hopping from inflorescence to inflorescence.

A few photos with a shovel for scale, these are not diminutive little palms. 

Tim

Wow and double wow beautiful gorgeous stunning. So there may be some hope of a pollinater in Australia who knows, now stop looking at your palms making them grow so fast. But fantastic palms you have.