2026 2026_02 - Florida Palmageddon Observations and Damage Photo Thread

[NorCalKing]

3 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Here's a view of the windy 22.6F and then 24.4F with light frost does to the backyard:

The two Bottles on the right were already badly damaged from previous upper 20s frosts.  The foxtails and fishtails on the right are almost completely brown.  Oddly enough the Ptychosperma Schefferi just behind the Bottles looks discolored but maybe ok?  I really thought that one was a wimp?  The Alfredii looks much worse today than yesterday, and has turned a sickly olive.  To the right of the Alfredii a Cryosophila Warscewiczii looks really good, but Cyphophoenix Nucele and Elaeis Guineensis "Whole Leaf" mutant are torched.  On the left a Dioon Spinulosum and Dypsis/Chrysalidocarpus Lanceolata are torched.  Elsewhere Lutescens and Pembana are equally burnt.  Not quite visible is a badly burned Attalea Brejinhoensis, and of course on the far left a Sabal "Lisa" looks like nothing happened.

Up front I had more tender species, since it's usually a few degrees warmer in the front yard:

The 3 Kings on the right are likely dead, the Arenga Pinnata hard to say, and the giant Encephalartos Ituriensis is defoliated.

Around the front a bunch of Encephalartos are also badly burned, with Ituriensis, Laurentianus and Gratus x Laurentianus at least partially defoliated.  The "Jesse Durko" bamboo is rapidly becoming a mass of sticks:

On the East side the Philodendron Selloum turned to stinky mush the first night.  On the far left a Butia shrugged it off, but a pair of Kings are scarlet red.  Just below the octagon window another Elaeis Guineensis is torched just as bad as the background fishtail and right foreground Arenga Pinnata.  The box in the bottom foreground covered a Corypha Umbraculifera.  With the box as protection the fans were burnt off but the petioles and new spear still look ok:

Just to the left of the above photo a pair of 20+ foot Alfredii still look tattered but reasonably decent.  The Encephalartos Kisambo shrugged it off:

That's crazy for King's. I've had probably 5 25° days in the last decade, and they get bronzed, but recover when the weather warms up in the spring.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

5 hours ago, Merlyn said:

And a couple of last photos for today.  The two Alfredii are peeking up over the mass of dead Tiger Grass leaves, but the Sabal Mauritiiformis looks pretty good!  Encephalartos Ituriensis on the left is pretty bad...:

I didn't get a good photo of the Copernicia Baileyana today, but it looks really good.  The fans of the below Fallaensis peeking up in the middle are a bit burnt, but the other sheltered ones look fine.  The Cycas Multipinnata is defoliated, and the crimson red Dioon Spinulosum on the right is impressive.  A small Syagrus Schizophylla in the lower middle looks D-E-D, which is surprising.  I thought Schizophylla was pretty hardy.  The Furfuracea is crispy as expected, and even the lower left Dioon Merolae isn't happy:

That's nice, I thought mauritiiformis was very weak when exposed to cold but now I see that I'm wrong.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

2 hours ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

Iin Belle Isle, here is my summary for 2/1:

10.5 hrs 32.0 or lower

6.5 hrs 28-32

4 hrs 25.7 - 28

For 2/2: bottomed at 34.5 as light west winds off the lake gave me protection from radiational cooling. 

Winds were relentless. 50 mph gusts destroyed my coco frame and even started unraveling wraps. 

Coco and foxtail: protected but heavily bronzed with a smidge of green on some fronds near the top. Foxtail same.

Christmas palms: protected. As of now, more green than i expected. But I assume all will brown over next couple weeks. 

Beccariophoenix in pic below looks good. A few bronzed tips.

I'll give other updates soon but these are my priorities. One observation...there js a new 2 story home in Belle Isle that has foxtails on the east side, wind protected. Brown but the one against the house looked as I drove by today, to be completely green. I had to do a double take but was driving by. I will.go verify this week and take a picture if I saw correctly. 

That damage looks very light, I don't think anything will die. Looks good enough to not be something "bad".

[guygee]

Pictures from yesterday of nearby damage.

Next-door

Across the street looking south

Across the street looking north

 

Driving around the neighborhood, there are several dozen scenes like these.

[Looking Glass]

8 hours ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

Iin Belle Isle, here is my summary for 2/1:

10.5 hrs 32.0 or lower

6.5 hrs 28-32

4 hrs 25.7 - 28

For 2/2: bottomed at 34.5 as light west winds off the lake gave me protection from radiational cooling. 

Winds were relentless. 50 mph gusts destroyed my coco frame and even started unraveling wraps. 

Coco and foxtail: protected but heavily bronzed with a smidge of green on some fronds near the top. Foxtail same.

Christmas palms: protected. As of now, more green than i expected. But I assume all will brown over next couple weeks. 

Beccariophoenix in pic below looks good. A few bronzed tips.

I'll give other updates soon but these are my priorities. One observation...there js a new 2 story home in Belle Isle that has foxtails on the east side, wind protected. Brown but the one against the house looked as I drove by today, to be completely green. I had to do a double take but was driving by. I will.go verify this week and take a picture if I saw correctly. 

 

 

 

Alfredii looks like a winner here!

Those coconuts in Satellite Beach….  Ouch.   

[pj_orlando_z9b]

3 hours ago, guygee said:

Pictures from yesterday of nearby damage.

Next-door

Across the street looking south

Across the street looking north

 

Driving around the neighborhood, there are several dozen scenes like these.

Those adonidia look almost untouched. Hoping the Coconuts pull through. Love the drive from there into Melbourne Beach. Looks so tropical like South FL. 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

3 hours ago, guygee said:

Pictures from yesterday of nearby damage.

Next-door

Across the street looking south

Across the street looking north

 

Driving around the neighborhood, there are several dozen scenes like these.

How come the Adonidia look good and the coconuts look like that? Any ideas of what variety they could be?

[Merlyn]

10 hours ago, NorCalKing said:

That's crazy for King's. I've had probably 5 25° days in the last decade, and they get bronzed, but recover when the weather warms up in the spring.

Mine are only about 8-12' tall and have bounced back from several ~27-28F frosts over the past couple of years.  This year they had at least 5 frosts prior to this record cold front and were already burnt badly.  Hopefully it's just cosmetic damage and the bud is still ok.

Tonight was the last of the cold front, with 30.0F and medium frost.  I'll pull out my uSD card from the Ambient Weather WS-3000-X5 and plot some graphs.

[Merlyn]

7 hours ago, idontknowhatnametuse said:

That's nice, I thought mauritiiformis was very weak when exposed to cold but now I see that I'm wrong.

I think it's nowhere close to the other Sabals, some of which look fine into the upper teens.  But I haven't seen any significant damage in the upper 20s in the past.  In FL they are surely a good 9b palm.  If they are resistant to LB then I'll probably plant more of them! 

[Zeeth]

18 minutes ago, idontknowhatnametuse said:

How come the Adonidia look good and the coconuts look like that? Any ideas of what variety they could be?

In our last significant freeze in 2010, Adonidia took a few weeks to show damage. We probably won't know full extent of cold damage until March. 

[Matthew92]

 

 

[Bazza]

Surprised how fried the Royals look!  Meanwhile my Adonidia looks great lol.....

I have some Banrot and Copper fungicide coming today and plan to apply tomorrow.

Banrot to the soil as a drench and copper sprayed up into the bud zone.

Guess the fungal target is Phytophthora palmivora.

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP144

Too early to know the extent of things. But trying to do what I can while I wait......🤔

[guygee]

2 hours ago, idontknowhatnametuse said:

How come the Adonidia look good and the coconuts look like that? Any ideas of what variety they could be?

Those are good questions. Not sure of the variety. I think coconut is even more sensitive to cold weather that Adonidia merrillii.  Even though it never froze here in 2010, my rough estimate is about 70% coconut mortality by 2011 after the long cool spells of 2010 and again in 2011. According to UF/IFAS (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST658) Christmas palms are considered to be cold hardy down to about 30°F. As Zeeth suggests maybe the Adonidia are slower to show the full extent of damage.  Many here inland who keep their coconuts alive through freezing weather have far more experience than me, but I can't imagine coconuts can tolerate freezing temperature for more that a couple of hours, much less the 9-10 hour freeze we just experienced.

[idontknowhatnametuse]

4 minutes ago, guygee said:

Those are good questions. Not sure of the variety. I think coconut is even more sensitive to cold weather that Adonidia merrillii.  Even though it never froze here in 2010, my rough estimate is about 70% coconut mortality by 2011 after the long cool spells of 2010 and again in 2011. According to UF/IFAS (https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/ST658) Christmas palms are considered to be cold hardy down to about 30°F. As Zeeth suggests maybe the Adonidia are slower to show the full extent of damage.  Many here inland who keep their coconuts alive through freezing weather have far more experience than me, but I can't imagine coconuts can tolerate freezing temperature for more that a couple of hours, much less the 9-10 hour freeze we just experienced.

Apparently the most common coconut in Florida are malayan dwarves. I have not had good experience with malayan dwarf varieties. They used to get damaged with below 7⁰C temperatures and 2021 wiped out my last one. In the other side, the orange panama tall that I brought from Isla Mujeres doesn't get damaged with that, only gets damaged when it drops below -1⁰C and with rain.

This is it after being exposed 0⁰C for some hours with very light protection (a trash bag) and 1⁰C the day before, also for some hours.

[guygee]

15 minutes ago, idontknowhatnametuse said:

Apparently the most common coconut in Florida are malayan dwarves. I have not had good experience with malayan dwarf varieties. They used to get damaged with below 7⁰C temperatures and 2021 wiped out my last one. In the other side, the orange panama tall that I brought from Isla Mujeres doesn't get damaged with that, only gets damaged when it drops below -1⁰C and with rain.

This is it after being exposed 0⁰C for some hours with very light protection (a trash bag) and 1⁰C the day before, also for some hours.

The three burnt coconut trees in the back have distinctly yellow/orange nuts, the one in the foreground has green ones. That is some good information on the cold hardiness of your Panama tall vs Malayan dwarves, thanks for that.

I had a bizarre experience with some cold weather and Malayan dwarves that may be interesting. Not sure of the year, maybe 2004, a strong cold front came through followed by high winds and extremely dry air. I had just planted 4 Malayan dwarves in my front yard, walmart specials. My bright idea was to points a strong stream of water into the wind so that it would blow back over the coconuts, thinking this would keep everything warmer. When I woke up the next morning there was no freeze and the neighbor's plants mostly undamaged, but my front yard was a winter wonderland coated in ice, I guess because of evaporative cooling in the dry air. The coconuts stayed green for a couple of weeks but they were goners.

[Ivanos1982]

17 hours ago, Merlyn said:

And a couple of last photos for today.  The two Alfredii are peeking up over the mass of dead Tiger Grass leaves, but the Sabal Mauritiiformis looks pretty good!  Encephalartos Ituriensis on the left is pretty bad...:

I didn't get a good photo of the Copernicia Baileyana today, but it looks really good.  The fans of the below Fallaensis peeking up in the middle are a bit burnt, but the other sheltered ones look fine.  The Cycas Multipinnata is defoliated, and the crimson red Dioon Spinulosum on the right is impressive.  A small Syagrus Schizophylla in the lower middle looks D-E-D, which is surprising.  I thought Schizophylla was pretty hardy.  The Furfuracea is crispy as expected, and even the lower left Dioon Merolae isn't happy:

thank you for posting all of this. I'm very curious to see what survives. I live in Houston TX where temps get to 20s every winter now and some winters even lower. So whatever survives in your yard could be a good zone pushing option for me. I'm impressed at Alfrediis. I really hope they make it.

[HudsonBill]

Some surprises in the yard. 

My cheapo vevor weather station recorded 26, 24 and 28 the last 3 days  now my area is cold a lot compared to other parts of fl I have already seen 27 and 28 degrees a handful of times this year and freezing temps to many to count lol. 

The biggest winner in my yard to me is arecas. Under canopy they are completely untouched in the open tops are scorched. 

coconut palm it was defoliated last winter at 27 it looks better after this than 1 night of 27 last year. 

Foxtail did worse than last year but not much same with royal

 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

20 minutes ago, HudsonBill said:

Some surprises in the yard. 

My cheapo vevor weather station recorded 26, 24 and 28 the last 3 days  now my area is cold a lot compared to other parts of fl I have already seen 27 and 28 degrees a handful of times this year and freezing temps to many to count lol. 

The biggest winner in my yard to me is arecas. Under canopy they are completely untouched in the open tops are scorched. 

coconut palm it was defoliated last winter at 27 it looks better after this than 1 night of 27 last year. 

Foxtail did worse than last year but not much same with royal

 

Nice C. lutescens hedge.

[RedRabbit]

Those B alfredii are impressive! It is great to see a few larger specimens taking minimal damage from the low 20s. Maybe they have potential in z9a after all!

[pj_orlando_z9b]

25 minutes ago, RedRabbit said:

Those B alfredii are impressive! It is great to see a few larger specimens taking minimal damage from the low 20s. Maybe they have potential in z9a after all!

My alfreddii in Orlando taken this morning. Unprotected, it experienced 25.7F. I soaked the soil the morning before the freeze.  

[pj_orlando_z9b]

3 hours ago, guygee said:

The three burnt coconut trees in the back have distinctly yellow/orange nuts, the one in the foreground has green ones. That is some good information on the cold hardiness of your Panama tall vs Malayan dwarves, thanks for that.

I had a bizarre experience with some cold weather and Malayan dwarves that may be interesting. Not sure of the year, maybe 2004, a strong cold front came through followed by high winds and extremely dry air. I had just planted 4 Malayan dwarves in my front yard, walmart specials. My bright idea was to points a strong stream of water into the wind so that it would blow back over the coconuts, thinking this would keep everything warmer. When I woke up the next morning there was no freeze and the neighbor's plants mostly undamaged, but my front yard was a winter wonderland coated in ice, I guess because of evaporative cooling in the dry air. The coconuts stayed green for a couple of weeks but they were goners.

After the 2018 hard freeze, there were good discussions about talls vs Malayan Dwarf hardiness. In Orlando, talls aren't common but the I-Drive coconut is one. Will try to take a pic today. In 2018, the I-Drive coconut showed a little less damage than the Malayans but recovered much faster. 

[Than]

11 minutes ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

My alfreddii in Orlando taken this morning. Unprotected, it experienced 25.7F. I soaked the soil the morning before the freeze.  

How does soaking the soil help?

[Matthew92]

Current look at the Satakentias at Disney's Polynesian Resort. Credit to The Disney with Sean Show Youtube channel (still from livestream).

Caryota also took it really hard

 

[Matthew92]

Didn't realize there's also a Satakentia at Epcot by the Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster entrance. Credit to Daily FastPass Youtuber (screenshot from livestream today). 

 

[Matthew92]

Foxtails at Epcot. Over the years at Disney I've noticed foxtail palms have basically become the "new queen palm" as they are using it everywhere now. I understand using them here and there for accent (coinciding with recent long stretches of a lack of hard freezes), but to plant them en-masse might have been a regrettable decision. Same video source as the post above. 

[Harry’s Palms]

I feel so bad for the folks in the wake of this cold snap. By the looks of it there was a lot of damage . I just hope some of those beauties recover. Harry

[kinzyjr]

3 minutes ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I feel so bad for the folks in the wake of this cold snap. By the looks of it there was a lot of damage . I just hope some of those beauties recover. Harry

Well wishes appreciated.  It was the coldest temperature I've recorded on this particular property (24^oF) coupled with 13MPH winds.

[Central Floridave]

I'll second the opinion that adonidia usually show the damage later.  Along with bottles and spindles.  

I've got a ton of tropical palms damaged on this freeze event!  South Tropical Trail Merritt Island isn't a microclime in an advective freeze obviously!   

[cocoforcoconuts]

Any word on the I-drive coconut palm?

[idontknowhatnametuse]

6 minutes ago, cocoforcoconuts said:

Any word on the I-drive coconut palm?

Also waiting for an update on that one

[idontknowhatnametuse]

2 hours ago, Matthew92 said:

Current look at the Satakentias at Disney's Polynesian Resort. Credit to The Disney with Sean Show Youtube channel (still from livestream).

Caryota also took it really hard

 

That Satakentia in the right looks like it's a goner. That Caryota looks very bad as well, doesn't look like it's a clumping species, maybe Caryota urens.

[cocoforcoconuts]

16 hours ago, guygee said:

Pictures from yesterday of nearby damage.

Next-door

Across the street looking south

Across the street looking north

 

Driving around the neighborhood, there are several dozen scenes like these.

Brutal. The fact that the east coast barrier islands weren't spared whatsoever gets me. Brevard south of Cape Canaveral has always looked great for its latitude and if I recall correctly, they made out decently in 2010 relatively speaking.  Sadly it appears the landscape there will be getting quite the makeover.

On a lighter note, I'd be very keen to obtain coconuts from surviving cocos all around east central FL

[pj_orlando_z9b]

1 hour ago, cocoforcoconuts said:

Any word on the I-drive coconut palm?

I'll get an update this week

[pj_orlando_z9b]

7 hours ago, Than said:

How does soaking the soil help?

It is advised because any pockets can allow cold air into the root system. Our soil temps were low 60s before the event so there is some evaporation that can raise humidity and provide some heat. Problem is we had tropical storm force winds so unless sheltered, it was useless! 50 mph gusts tore my protection apart in some cases. 

[FlaPalmLover]

Foxtails in Altamonte Springs: 

 

[Than]

3 hours ago, pj_orlando_z9b said:

It is advised because any pockets can allow cold air into the root system. Our soil temps were low 60s before the event so there is some evaporation that can raise humidity and provide some heat. Problem is we had tropical storm force winds so unless sheltered, it was useless! 50 mph gusts tore my protection apart in some cases. 

Doesn't the water also freeze though, or at least become colder than soil, contributing to root stress?

[guygee]

Driving back home after surveying more of the devastation from the freeze,  I thought, "wow, look at all the dead vegetation in that guy's yard ...oh, wait, that's my yard".

The fried tree in the foreground is supposedly Canarium madagascariense (supposedly since what was once thought to be 3 species is now recognized to be up to 33 species). They're dioecious so I planted several to be safe about 15 years ago, and they all look like that. We'll see if they recover.

The equally fried Elaeis guineensis oil palm I'm not as worried about, as if I recall correctly there are reports of these surviving in Orlando, also a report of one specimen on the FIT campus surviving the 1989 freeze. I went to check out that latter report and found a wooded area with a stream flowing through where the seeds from the original tree had spread with many babies coming up. I imagine that was torn out and developed some years ago, I looked more recently and couldn't find it anymore.

The bamboo foliage is all dead as well, this is one clump

This is another oil palm, the tree with the dead foliage to the left is Sclerocarya birrea, marula tree

This Dypsis pembana Pemba palm looks singed but not too bad. It is sheltered by the fence and several larger Macadamia trees.

My Glenn and Valencia Pride mango trees had flowers burned and some minor top vegetation damage but otherwise fine. The Brogdon avocado tree looked unfazed.

[guygee]

6 hours ago, cocoforcoconuts said:

Brutal. The fact that the east coast barrier islands weren't spared whatsoever gets me. Brevard south of Cape Canaveral has always looked great for its latitude and if I recall correctly, they made out decently in 2010 relatively speaking.  Sadly it appears the landscape there will be getting quite the makeover.

On a lighter note, I'd be very keen to obtain coconuts from surviving cocos all around east central FL

I'll definitely keep an eye out, but if anything unprotected survived I'll be amazed.

[Zeeth]

4 hours ago, guygee said:

The equally fried Elaeis guineensis oil palm I'm not as worried about, as if I recall correctly there are reports of these surviving in Orlando, also a report of one specimen on the FIT campus surviving the 1989 freeze. I went to check out that latter report and found a wooded area with a stream flowing through where the seeds from the original tree had spread with many babies coming up. I imagine that was torn out and developed some years ago, I looked more recently and couldn't find it anymore.

There were indeed 2 Elaeis guineensis at FIT that survived 1989. One of them died in the 2010 freeze, and the other randomly got budroot a few years ago and died as well. 

[idontknowhatnametuse]

4 hours ago, guygee said:

Driving back home after surveying more of the devastation from the freeze,  I thought, "wow, look at all the dead vegetation in that guy's yard ...oh, wait, that's my yard".

The fried tree in the foreground is supposedly Canarium madagascariense (supposedly since what was once thought to be 3 species is now recognized to be up to 33 species). They're dioecious so I planted several to be safe about 15 years ago, and they all look like that. We'll see if they recover.

The equally fried Elaeis guineensis oil palm I'm not as worried about, as if I recall correctly there are reports of these surviving in Orlando, also a report of one specimen on the FIT campus surviving the 1989 freeze. I went to check out that latter report and found a wooded area with a stream flowing through where the seeds from the original tree had spread with many babies coming up. I imagine that was torn out and developed some years ago, I looked more recently and couldn't find it anymore.

The bamboo foliage is all dead as well, this is one clump

This is another oil palm, the tree with the dead foliage to the left is Sclerocarya birrea, marula tree

This Dypsis pembana Pemba palm looks singed but not too bad. It is sheltered by the fence and several larger Macadamia trees.

My Glenn and Valencia Pride mango trees had flowers burned and some minor top vegetation damage but otherwise fine. The Brogdon avocado tree looked unfazed.

Elaeis guineensis at that stage can already take some cold. Their trunk is very wide and that gives the spear more protection.