Hybrid mystery solved?

[quaman58]

Hi all,

Back in late 2017, myself and some fellow palmtalkers took a trip to the big island of Hawaii. We had a number of people there on the island that graciously showed us their gardens, which also included a trip to Floribunda. I remember one of the regulars that we met at Floribunda mentioning something to the effect, “man, you really got Jeff on his A game today“, which I thought was funny. Anyway, the following day we went over and saw the garden of Bill Austin. He was just a wonderful, funny guy. I remember standing by some beautiful clumping Chrysalidiocarpus, and Bill reached down on the ground, grabbed a fistful of seeds and said “here take these with you“. So I dutifully brought them home, germinated a bunch of them, and they turned out to be largely solitary, with a red growing point. At this point, I thought my memory must be faulty, and I poured through all my pictures and could find nothing that even remotely resembled them. I gave most of them away and kept one for myself. It’s been a slow, steady grower, that split a couple years ago, and is still only shoulder high. Lo and behold, I’m looking in the “for sale“ forum a couple days ago and I see some palms being sold as psamophilla x leptichielos, (being called a Sandy Bear palm) that are identical to the ones that I sprouted. Anyway, here it is in all its relatively diminutive glory…Thanks for looking!

 

 

Edited March 26 by quaman58
Misspell

[realarch]

Well, that’s kind of a great revelation. I had been to Bill’s garden many times and never knew this hybrid existed. Like so many gardens, the amount of material is so extensive that no matter how many visits, one always sees something new 

Tim

[richnorm]

Just goes to show that hybrids are not always faster.

[Tracy]

15 minutes ago, richnorm said:

Just goes to show that hybrids are not always faster.

It seems to have taken the diminutive size of the psammophila.  At least this specimen of the batch.

Having only visited Bill's garden once, I can still appreciate Tim's comment above about never having noticed it.  Bill's garden of delights has so many specimens I know I missed as I wandered in awe. 

[richnorm]

2 hours ago, Tracy said:

It seems to have taken the diminutive size of the psammophila.  At least this specimen of the batch.

Having only visited Bill's garden once, I can still appreciate Tim's comment above about never having noticed it.  Bill's garden of delights has so many specimens I know I missed as I wandered in awe. 

I really must get to Hawaii. I know that overwhelming feeling when you visit an amazing collection!