A strange case - Adonidia merrillii

[idontknowhatnametuse]

I was checking the streets of my city when I came across this extremely rare find, a duo of 2011 and 2021 freeze Adonidia merrillii survivors. They look extremely healthy and even have fruit. They look like 2021 didn't even do anything too serious to them. I wonder if they protected them? though I think that even with protection they would have had at least a bit of damage. I know they are in a protected space with a wall but most of the other Adonidias in this neighborhood died in even more protected spaces. This is not an isolated case, there are some old Adonidias near my house that also survived 2021 and have flowered but never fruited. Perhaps this place could have a microclimate? There's a very healthy coconut palm in this same neighborhood too.

https://www.google.com/maps/@25.7797717,-100.274785,3a,34.3y,21.73h,102.9t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sfZQhJSvtW_dkIiZp3jSSMQ!2e0!5s20250101T000000!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-12.90155185331416%26panoid%3DfZQhJSvtW_dkIiZp3jSSMQ%26yaw%3D21.73098648859816!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDcxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

 

 

[Fusca]

Maybe the palms were installed fairly large after 2011.  Maybe they're up against a south-facing wall.  Not sure what temperatures they saw in 2021.  I had a couple of 5 foot tall Adonidia survive 27°F with minimal damage wrapped in small Christmas lights but were killed outright the following winter unprotected at the same temperature.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

41 minutes ago, Fusca said:

Maybe the palms were installed fairly large after 2011.  Maybe they're up against a south-facing wall.  Not sure what temperatures they saw in 2021.  I had a couple of 5 foot tall Adonidia survive 27°F with minimal damage wrapped in small Christmas lights but were killed outright the following winter unprotected at the same temperature.

They were already there in 2009 and there was another one outside the house as well but I think that one did die in 2011.

[peachy]

We went through a 'black frost' years ago and nobody was left unscathed. Even the queen palms were scorched. Fast forward a couple of years and one would never have known that they had been through a -5c with a heavy frost. Foxtails, Coconuts, Adonidia, roystoneas all looked dead (very dead) but the following hot wet summer revived them.  Even Frangipani (plumeria) which had turned to jelly on the extremes, flowered the second year afterward.  Of course there were losses but the majority survived.  It was probably the daytime temperatures were in the mid 20s C that keep the death rate of palms so low.

Peachy