Purchased this as pembana years ago as a one gallon. Probably in ground for 10 years. Trunk height about 7 to 8 feet to bottom of tallest crownshaft. OA maybe 12 feet. Almost a teal color trunk. Flared base. Size 11 shoe for scale. Tristichous growth pattern to leaves. Small red fruits when ripe. Which is it? Cabadae or pembana? I heard that pembana is larger in all aspects and faster growing with less trunks. Just want to be sure. I don't have a cabadae to compare it to. Just doesn't seem as overly large to me being pembana as I would assume. Thanks for any help.

Garrett

I’d say that’s a pembana, @Cape Garrett ! They kinda sit awhile then EXPLODE in height.

Here’s some of mine after about 10-15 years in the ground.

I do concur. C. pembanus.

Tim

10 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

I’d say that’s a pembana, @Cape Garrett ! They kinda sit awhile then EXPLODE in height.

Here’s some of mine after about 10-15 years in the ground.

Awesome. That's what I want it to be. Looking good!

9 hours ago, realarch said:

I do concur. C. pembanus.

Tim

Awesome. Thanks!

I like pembanas, they can get some nice blue/green trunk hues in part shade. They proved to be my weakest palms in hurricane milton(110mph), the solitary one tilted and lifted roots up and the multi(3 trunks) had its tallest trunk snapped at the base. Fortunately I have a number in pots as these palms went to seed after 5 years and dropped them everywhere including (3) pots with soil in them. I planted one out, the other two will go in soon. The C. cabadae Ive seen didnt have as much of that glaucous, waxy blue. In direct sun, they may not hold the waxy tint for long.

I have both and I cannot tell them apart.

3 hours ago, Brad52 said:

I have both and I cannot tell them apart.

They are similar and closely related. Cabadae is a bit smaller and slower growing.

5 hours ago, sonoranfans said:

I like pembanas, they can get some nice blue/green trunk hues in part shade. They proved to be my weakest palms in hurricane milton(110mph), the solitary one tilted and lifted roots up and the multi(3 trunks) had its tallest trunk snapped at the base. Fortunately I have a number in pots as these palms went to seed after 5 years and dropped them everywhere including (3) pots with soil in them. I planted one out, the other two will go in soon. The C. cabadae Ive seen didnt have as much of that glaucous, waxy blue. In direct sun, they may not hold the waxy tint for long.

Surprised you had that much damage from Milton with these. Mine skated through the 12 plus hours of a direct hit from Ian and only one trunk was bent. I was able to straighten it and stomp it back into place. I did have some wind protection from where it was placed, but I no longer have those uncontrollable hedges of Chrysalidocarpus lutescens anymore that acted as a wind buffer to an extent. Milton did minor damage to my palms down here. Mostly leaf tear and some defoliation.

5 hours ago, Brad52 said:

I have both and I cannot tell them apart.

I have heard that pembana has a tristichous growth pattern to the leaves, like a triangle palm, and cabadae has a whirl growth pattern. I just don't have a cabadae to see the difference, if any.

The only difference I’ve noticed is that the Pembana seems to frequently have green leaves just crease near the shaft and hang down. Also, the Pembana. does seem more glaucous at leaf fall and certainly for a longer period of time.

You can see why they call the cabadae the blue cane palm, very distinctive colour.

2 hours ago, Cape Garrett said:

Surprised you had that much damage from Milton with these. My skated through the 12 plus hours of a direct hit from Ian and only one trunk was bent. I was able to straighten it and stomp it back into place. I did have some wind protection from where it is placed. But I no longer have those uncontrollable hedges of Chrysalidocarpus lutescens anymore that acted as a wind buffer to an extent. Milton did minor damage to my palms down here. Mostly leaf tear and some defoliation.

they were exposed above the roof level to the windward direction on the back end of the eye @ 110mph and the solitary one was 25'+ and too close to the house(5 feet) to straighten it up and hope it worked. THe thinner tall multi was also near 25; and it went down on the fence. Tall palms in my yard fared far worse than shorter or mid sized palms. The multi's smaller trunks were essentially undamaged. Maybe they got too tall for their exposure and limited roots.

The first three are Pembana including the creased leaf stems and then the last three are Cabadae.

They are indeed a beautiful palm!

14 hours ago, Brad52 said:

The first three are Pembana including the creased leaf stems and then the last three are Cabadae.

The difference I see in yours is young stems have green petioles in pembanus and dark reddish in cabadae. Leaflet arrangement also looks flatter in your pembanus than the cabadae which has a slight V shape from what I can tell. I’m pretty sure both of these traits are consistent with each species so I’d say your labels are right.

Just to add some confusion - I would’ve guessed the ID of the palm in the OP was C cabadae based on this. It also looks to have a strong tristichous habit which I’ve always associated with cabadae more than pembanus.

44 minutes ago, tim_brissy_13 said:

The difference I see in yours is young stems have green petioles in pembanus and dark reddish in cabadae. Leaflet arrangement also looks flatter in your pembanus than the cabadae which has a slight V shape from what I can tell. I’m pretty sure both of these traits are consistent with each species so I’d say your labels are right.

Just to add some confusion - I would’ve guessed the ID of the palm in the OP was C cabadae based on this. It also looks to have a strong tristichous habit which I’ve always associated with cabadae more than pembanus.

Thank you, Tim. I haven’t quite cultivated a refined eye enough for distinguishing palm characteristics. Bamboo yes, palms not so much.

I would agree with ‘the other Tim,’ in that C. pembana has flatter, wider pinnae than C. cabade. I used to have a C. pembana which was removed. it was a more robust palm and a prolific clumper. The C. cabade, I used to have two, both bifurcated only once and grew rapidly with thinner trunks and ‘V’ shaped leaves. The remaining C. cabade, with two trunks, have grown into tall skinny specimens.

Tim

I had 1/3 pembanas die in 2010 28F, the other two pulled their spears but I was able to revive them

28F burn Dec15 2020

I dug it up and put it in a pot after trimming all the dead. A spear emerged a month later. It was a sad looking palm.

I replanted it and here it is prior to Milton in 2023

This one in part day shade had a nicer blue tint than the other one(a solitary) that saw a few hours more direct sun. My experience is that I like these because of the trunk color but also because they are not too prolific in suckering. I have a few 2nd generation in pots I'm planning on putting in the ground. I wont put another one near my house. THe Cabadae I saw looked a lot like these pembana. I went with pembana because its supposed to be a couple degrees more cold hardy.

I started a batch of pembana from seed a few years back, here , in Arizona. Some are just beginning to clump. Not a full sun palm in my area, but makes a great unusual patio palm or even an in ground planting on an eastern exposure.

aztropic

Mesa, Arizona