How common is, that a lonely (functionally) female Livistona mariae sets fruits with fertile seeds?

Konstantinos I have only 1 Livistona Australis, this one produces good sized seeds, when they fall to the ground, and there are many, only 1/2 germinate

They are monoecious, having both male and female flowers. So your one lonely palm will set seeds. To help with cross pollination a single tree in a stand, will tend be either male or female, choosing this characteristic to help with cross pollination. But both male and female flowers are present on the same tree. Like a lot of plants if there are no boys hanging around they have a way of setting seeds. I guess the good old hermaphrodite works in wonderful ways.

40 minutes ago, happypalms said:

They are monoecious, having both male and female flowers. So your one lonely palm will set seeds. To help with cross pollination a single tree in a stand, will tend be either male or female, choosing this characteristic to help with cross pollination. But both male and female flowers are present on the same tree. Like a lot of plants if there are no boys hanging around they have a way of setting seeds. I guess the good old hermaphrodite works in wonderful ways.

Richard, what you have reported sounds extremely interesting! Do you mean that the existence of non own pollen on the female flowers causes a hormonal reaction, which prohibits the perfection of male flowers? That would be awesome and display in another instance, how 'wise and complicated is mother nature. I had a similar occurrence this year in my garden. An otherwise male Phoenix dactylifera has produced for the first time hermaphrodite flowers (about 0.4% of male dactylifera individuals produce hermaphrodite flowers), which caused abortion of all male flowers and other spathes containing male flowers.

I know they are considered ‘functionally dioecious’, but I know of many cases of Livistona sp being monoecious and setting seed without other Livistona sp nearby (or at least very unlikely to have other nearly Livistona sp). Beyond that, I can’t say I’ve dug into it enough to know anything further like what Richard is saying.

25 minutes ago, Phoenikakias said:

Richard, what you have reported sounds extremely interesting! Do you mean that the existence of non own pollen on the female flowers causes a hormonal reaction, which prohibits the perfection of male flowers? That would be awesome and display in another instance, how 'wise and complicated is mother nature. I had a similar occurrence this year in my garden. An otherwise male Phoenix dactylifera has produced for the first time hermaphrodite flowers (about 0.4% of male dactylifera individuals produce hermaphrodite flowers), which caused abortion of all male flowers and other spathes containing male flowers.

Mother Nature has her own way of figuring things out. It’s only when we interfere the whole balance gets out of whack.

Iam sure there is a very scientific answer as to the whole process and the plant behaviour.

Mother Nature never stops, she has surprises in many different ways, plants dont talk a language we can decipher, but they do talk and feel with emotions. There one step ahead of us in many ways. We may control plants in mono culture. But they are the ones who utilise and use us for their survival in our gardens all around the globe.

They know what they’re doing and do it quite well.

This post is very interesting for us who live where there aren't many wild palm trees.

26 minutes ago, gyuseppe said:

This post is very interesting for us who live where there aren't many wild palm trees.

Those are issues botanists and taxonomists can not or do not raise regularly. Because those people study many sp and genera simultaneously and inspect each sp in its habitat at a certain point of time without observing its whole life cycle. Last action is possible only within growers.

I had a Rhapis Excelsia produce an abundant amount of seed once . None of the seeds germinated but it was cool. I have had the plant over 30 years and it only happened once! Harry

This palm had quite a few seeds by the time it was done. I planted the seeds in various parts of my garden and a few in pots . Nothing popped up.

Me and Giuseppe had also come across this occurrence. Imho all is about lack or not adequate quantity of compatible pollen. Pollen fertilizes but also creates various hormonic reactions inside the fruit. Perhaps in rhe end you come up with a perfectly shape and sized fruit and seeds devoid of an embryo.