Pritchardia Experts Help Needed To Identify.

[Jim in Los Altos]

Anyone’s help is greatly appreciated in identifying this young Pritchardia I planted a few years ago as a one leaf seedling. It started off very slowly in its full all day sun position and likely insufficient irrigation but is now perked up. It was a no label purchase back then. 
 

[Frond-friend42]

Maybe P. glabrata?

[Harry’s Palms]

No idea , lovely palm though . I only wish I had planted more than one Pritchardia. Harry

[Jim in Los Altos]

1 hour ago, Frond-friend42 said:

Maybe P. glabrata?

Hmm, could very well be. Thank you. 

[happypalms]

Pritchardia gaudi chaudi? 

[quaman58]

3 hours ago, happypalms said:

Pritchardia gaudi chaudi? 

I know that these names come and go over time, but I thought that was one of the species names that Hodel had tossed into the dust bin of history..

[quaman58]

Jim, any lepedia on the leaf undersides?

[Jim in Los Altos]

2 hours ago, quaman58 said:

Jim, any lepedia on the leaf undersides?

Lepedia? Not sure what you are referring to, Bret. The leaves are green on their undersides however. 

[quaman58]

Okay, if they're green, it looks an awful lot like one purchased as P. lanaiensis that I'm growing. Leaf shape, squatty appearance, short petioles. Assuming that mine is actually lanaiensis, and going out further on a limb since Hodel reclassified that species as glabrata...well, there you go. Maybe, possibly, might be.. It's as clear as mud.

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Jim in Los Altos said:

Lepedia? Not sure what you are referring to, Bret. The leaves are green on their undersides however. 

Here is an example of a Pritchardia leaf with lepidia Jim.  Pritchardia minor, martii,  flynnii and others show this.

Your palm is attractive but I hesitate to identify it.  I have more mislabeled Pritchardia than correctly identified  specimens.

[realarch]

Hmmmm, here’s a shot of P. glabrata about two years after planting from a one gallon back in 2012. It had not yet developed the pendant leaf tips. Not sure if this helps or adds to the confusion. 

Tim

[tim_brissy_13]

Jim I think the best I could do is rule out a few possibilities. From the photos it looks to me to be solid green on both sides with leaflets spread about 180 degrees around the petiole. I’d expect species with abaxial surface completely covered in lepidia to start showing at least a little bit at that size, which would rule out P arecina, hardyi, martii (and the old gaudichaudi), minor, perlmanii, flynii, viscosa and maybe a couple of others I’m forgetting. The leaf shape I think already rules out maideniana. I think the blade is already showing it will be significantly undulate rather than mostly flat so I’d say beccariana and lanigera are unlikely (although this is where I’d stop at ruling them out completely). Also the fact it’s still alive probably rules out non Hawaiian species!

Not sure that helps much - there’s still about half of the species I can’t rule out. For what it’s worth, P hillebrandii that I’ve grown and seen at that size are similar to yours, whereas P martii, napaliensis, minor and maideniana were already visibly different (although that could be partially due to growing conditions). P napaliensis tends to have smaller fronds relative to trunk size at that size based on mine and others I’ve seen but again I couldn’t conclusively rule it out. 

[colin Peters]

Looks kinda like Timʻs glabrata but Iʻm thinking more like hillibrandi.  Many of the Pritchardia in my opinion do not alway show the lepidia until more mature.  Have seen many small marti and bakeri in habitat with no lepidia. Could be due to the harsh natural environment at higher elevations here   Pritchardia is a very hard genus to figure out when young. 

aloha

[Jim in Los Altos]

50 minutes ago, colin Peters said:

Looks kinda like Timʻs glabrata but Iʻm thinking more like hillibrandi.  Many of the Pritchardia in my opinion do not alway show the lepidia until more mature.  Have seen many small marti and bakeri in habitat with no lepidia. Could be due to the harsh natural environment at higher elevations here   Pritchardia is a very hard genus to figure out when young. 

aloha

Colin, My hillibrandi has much longer petioles, less leaf curvature, larger fronds as a juvenile, and considerably faster growth than the Pritchardia whose identity is in question. I’m leaning toward P. glabrata so far. Whatever it is, I’m enjoying watching it grow, even as slow as it is.