World Palm Symposium in Singapore July 2026

[Bill Baker (Kew)]

The World Palm Symposium is happening - 13-17 July 2026 in Singapore!

This is the premier meeting about palm biology and brings together leading palm experts from around the world. The IPS has recently pledged vital support to the meeting. Anyone with a passion for palms and their remarkable natural history is encouraged to participate! Please check out the website - link below. 

https://palms2026.sg/

[Jonathan]

7 hours ago, Bill Baker (Kew) said:

The World Palm Symposium is happening - 13-17 July 2026 in Singapore!

This is the premier meeting about palm biology and brings together leading palm experts from around the world. The IPS has recently pledged vital support to the meeting. Anyone with a passion for palms and their remarkable natural history is encouraged to participate! Please check out the website - link below. 

https://palms2026.sg/

Sounds very interesting Bill.

If you happen to meet any  Arenga specialists or botanists from the Himalayas, could you please ask them on behalf of us growers to review the species in cultivation known as A micrantha? It doesn’t fit the description of a solitary species to 2m at all, instead becoming a clustering palm to 6m.

Might be a fun research project for an intern!

[tim_brissy_13]

3 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Sounds very interesting Bill.

If you happen to meet any  Arenga specialists or botanists from the Himalayas, could you please ask them on behalf of us growers to review the species in cultivation known as A micrantha? It doesn’t fit the description of a solitary species to 2m at all, instead becoming a clustering palm to 6m.

Might be a fun research project for an intern!

That Arenga is anything but ‘micrantha’. Maybe Arenga maxima or Arenga robusta 🤣

[happypalms]

🌱

[IPS President]

Thank you @Bill Baker (Kew)  

 

The International Palm Society is immensely proud to be involved with the WPS. I hope we get a great turnout for this monumental event in the palm world. I am already aware of several directors from the IPS planning on attending. It’s going to be terrific!

[Bill Baker (Kew)]

11 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Sounds very interesting Bill.

If you happen to meet any  Arenga specialists or botanists from the Himalayas, could you please ask them on behalf of us growers to review the species in cultivation known as A micrantha? It doesn’t fit the description of a solitary species to 2m at all, instead becoming a clustering palm to 6m.

Might be a fun research project for an intern!

Glad to say that there is a student from India undertaking a PhD (based at University of Sydney) on just this topic. He's just getting started.

[Jonathan]

1 hour ago, Bill Baker (Kew) said:

Glad to say that there is a student from India undertaking a PhD (based at University of Sydney) on just this topic. He's just getting started.

That's great news, thanks for keeping us in the loop!

 

[csheth]

On 10/8/2025 at 2:15 AM, Jonathan said:

Sounds very interesting Bill.

If you happen to meet any  Arenga specialists or botanists from the Himalayas, could you please ask them on behalf of us growers to review the species in cultivation known as A micrantha? It doesn’t fit the description of a solitary species to 2m at all, instead becoming a clustering palm to 6m.

Might be a fun research project for an intern!

Hi @Jonathan, curious to know when and where you acquired the A. micrantha from? I am the guy trying to solve the A. micrantha taxonomy that Bill mentioned. Indeed you are right the description of it being a solitary 2m palm is not entirely wrong that individual must not have matured. All A. micrantha populations that i have observed have a multi-stemmed habit growing as tall as 11m but on average they are 6m. Planning to submit an article sometime next year on this so stay tuned! 

I would also like to know what germination conditions did you set for these seeds? On field there is alot of successfully germinating seeds, but i could not replicate the same in a greenhouse.

best

chintan

[Jonathan]

11 hours ago, csheth said:

Hi @Jonathan, curious to know when and where you acquired the A. micrantha from? I am the guy trying to solve the A. micrantha taxonomy that Bill mentioned. Indeed you are right the description of it being a solitary 2m palm is not entirely wrong that individual must not have matured. All A. micrantha populations that i have observed have a multi-stemmed habit growing as tall as 11m but on average they are 6m. Planning to submit an article sometime next year on this so stay tuned! 

I would also like to know what germination conditions did you set for these seeds? On field there is alot of successfully germinating seeds, but i could not replicate the same in a greenhouse.

best

chintan

Hi Chintan, that one's a beauty! 

Glad to hear that you're working on this mystery, it would be great to know what's actually going on with the taxonomy. The only description I could find online is this one https://palms.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/vol44n1p14-18.pdf which I'm sure you've seen. 

My seeds came from Rare Palm Seeds in Germany, as did those of probably everyone else on this board who has this species. 

Germination shouldn't be difficult, although the seeds are prone to fungal rot, so it  might pay to soak them in hydrogen peroxide prior to sowing. My method in the past is to put them into plastic ziplock bags ('the baggie method') on bottom heat at 25 degrees celsius. However the current batch I have in the propagator are in plastic containers with no lids, to allow better air movement to hopefully reduce fungal issues...this hasn't worked! Some of the seeds are mouldy already, so I'm taking them out today to soak in H2O2 for a couple of hours again.

Germination media is 50/50 peat moss and coarse perlite.

Germination can be reasonably fast compared to other palms, around 50 days for my first batch several years ago.

I currently have some one year old seedlings plus a few older palms in pots, one of which is just starting to produce offsets, as well as the seeds sown recently. Seedling growth has been pretty slow. 

Happy to take pics for you if it helps, or send you some seeds if you need some more.

Cheers, Jonathan 

 

 

[Jonathan]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the seeds were also soaked in water for a couple of days to hydrate prior to sowing, this is a common trick with palm seeds and anecdotally seems to reduce germination time,  not sure whether it's been tested against a control group for many species though! 

[JD in the OC]

Looks like fun. My wife has been to Singapore and said it was absolutely amazing. Going to see if I can make it.

JD

[tim_brissy_13]

Would be really interested if 2 particular Madagascar mysteries could be studied;

Ravenea glauca - Isalo vs Andringitra. Are they different forms of the same species or each unique species. 
 

Chrysalidocarpus onilahensis - drooping/weeping vs upright/stiff (and vs sp bef/slick willy). PoM seems to lump all together but appearance and seed are very different. In the case of C sp bef, growth habit very different too.