Phoenix Rupicola pure?

[MoPalm]

Hi everyone! Take a look at my new acquired rupicola - do you think it is pure rupicola? If hybrid, what is hyprized with? 

[Hu Palmeras]

Your Rupicola is beautiful. If it's a hybrid, your palm is still beautiful. If you want a pure Rupicola palm, you should buy from the RPS store, which specializes in selling palm seeds. There you'll find the world of palms in all its splendor.

[Hu Palmeras]

Here is my pure rupicola, germinated from RPS seeds.

 

[MoPalm]

I hope it is a male so it can marry my reclinata which i feel or looks pure reclinata to me. 

[Hu Palmeras]

Beautiful Phoenix reclinata palm. Congratulations! It looks like a pure palm and not a hybrid.

[MoPalm]

3 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

Here is my pure rupicola, germinated from RPS seeds.

 

I heard they take forever to grow. So no way I have the patience to wait 100 years to see them with trunk. Is the rupicola has thin trunk like Reclinata? Or thick one? This one I planted today has not too big trunk, but not small either. But once the old boots fall off the trunk will be in similar size of my Reclinatas at the base I believe. 

[Hu Palmeras]

You're right, my friend. But without a doubt, whether they're small or large palm trees, they put on a beautiful show for our eyes.

[MoPalm]

7 minutes ago, Hu Palmeras said:

You're right, my friend. But without a doubt, whether they're small or large palm trees, they put on a beautiful show for our eyes.

This photo below inspired me to look for rupicola. I found many, if not all, look very similar to canary island palm, which is beautiful but it’s everywhere here. This one I purchased looks similar to the photo below. Which is good enough for me 😅. 

[Fusca]

1 hour ago, MoPalm said:

Hi everyone! Take a look at my new acquired rupicola - do you think it is pure rupicola? If hybrid, what is hyprized with? 

It looks exactly like a rupicola I had.  Are the spines at the base of the petioles flexible or stiff?  If stiff it probably isn't 100% rupicola but mostly rupicola.  Phoenix palms hybridize easily.

[MoPalm]

They are flexible for sure

[sonoranfans]

the weeping form suggests an absence of true(dactylifera) and canary date palms.  flexible thorns at the petiole base also say rupicola.  They look like my triple.   TLC is indicated they have been container bound it appears.  Here is my triple.  A third identifier is the fruit nice and red turning to dark purple a little at a time.  

[MoPalm]

I will wait to see the gender of the palm! But from looking at pictures of yours and Hu, looks like mine is more weeping. Also can’t tell, but mine has really really long fronds. I would say each frond is about 8’, maybe more. So it might not be pure Rupicola, but hybrid with something weepy. The fronds texture is very light and thin. Picture below from the nursery before i bought it and planted. 

[sonoranfans]

10 hours ago, MoPalm said:

I will wait to see the gender of the palm! But from looking at pictures of yours and Hu, looks like mine is more weeping. Also can’t tell, but mine has really really long fronds. I would say each frond is about 8’, maybe more. So it might not be pure Rupicola, but hybrid with something weepy. The fronds texture is very light and thin. Picture below from the nursery before i bought it and planted. 

may well be yours has hybrid blood. but the leaf length is the same as mine 8' 2" , just measured.   On mine, the newest leaves are still growing out to full length, the older leaves are full length. Sometimes a thin crown lays down in the wind but as it thickens there is wind protection.  Yours looks over trimmed, probably due to the container it cant support a full crown.  It also may be dehydrated as many palms become a bit water starved in containers.  Rupicolas hold many leaves when they are mature, I count 30 leaves in the crown plus or minus a few.  Mine used to weep more when they were smaller and had only 8-10 leaves.  This triple is 14(?) years in the ground from a one gallon size.  These are very slow starters after they go in the ground, the crowns thicken up nicely with many more leaves as they mature.  My Rupies open a bunch of spears at a time(pictured below).  I did trim up hurricane damaged leaves this past spring before the pics.  If a petiole is fractured I expect the palm cannot recover the sap.  Post hurricane Milton 6 months, I removed the leaves as they were dragging the ground or had broken petioles.  As I recall, the flexible thorn base is something no other phoenix has.  I expect your palm will look very different after a couple years in the ground.

[MoPalm]

Great information and background! I do agree the palm was overly trimmed by the nursery and it should looks different in a few years. Yours looks beautiful. I would say 14 years for the amount of growth you have is not bad. I set up some expectation and I will treat it as a bush until I see good growth. Since mine has about 2.5 to 3’ of clear trunk, do you think it will speed up now? Are they slower than Kentias? Kentia tend to be super slow until they trunk they speed up.

Rupicolas are really beautiful and I am surprised they are not planted a lot here in California.