I have had received some interest in this elegant Malagasy species that I have been growing, and I'll take a little time to present some pictures and comments. Seeds from RPS were sown in July 2008. Good germination, four plants were planted out in April 2014. Here is a pic of the quartet taken a few days ago:

I took another pic (in rare full sun) from a different angle with a lawn chair for scale:

The pinnate portions of dead leaves tend to break off, leaving numerous very thick leaf bases that exceed in toughness any other genus I can think of at the moment. Here is the largest one. Smaller palms next to the left are Dypsis (still Dypsis) rivularis. For a while, plants of the two species were of identical height. Two larger palms in the distance are Clinostigma exorrhizums.

Inflors are two or more feet long, very straight and vertical, emerging from those tough leaf bases. Three of mine have produced them - I'm not sure which sex they are. Here are two that fell off after dying.

This species is among my favorites. They do trunk after sufficient time, as I have seen in published photos. But I am in no hurry for that.

Boy, Mike, you’re not kidding, those things are beauties! I got a couple as seedlings, probably 10 to 12 years ago, and they are definitely slower in my part of the world. But they’re green, about waist high. My fervent hope is that they speed up somewhat now that they’re reasonably established. This is just another one of those species where seeds become available on over a course of a few months, and then just absolutely dry up never to be seen again. Ravenea in particular, due to the male/female thing. Krociana, giant, robustior, julietae, all MIA after a brief availability. I guess the lesson is, grab them while you can! Great looking palms, thanks again for sharing!

It always amazes me how well palms grow over on the islands . Those are beauties and would probably take a lifetime to grow from seed , even here in Southern California . My high school friend retired and built a home on Kauai. I went over to see his new home and he had just planted some waist high Roystonia . A few years later , I went back to visit and they were large , trunking specimens!

Those photos are great . In particular , the shot with the white plastic chair . I can see many times , sitting with an iced beverage , admiring the scenery. My kind of place! Harry

I got a bunch of very generously gifted R palates seeds a couple of years ago. Absolutely zero have germinated to this day, but strangely all seeds still look solid and unaffected by fungus or mould.

Does anyone have any tips on germinating this species? I’m considering starting again and re sowing after a bit of a soak in bleach which has been successful on some other seeds with long viability periods (Brahea sp and some others).

I had a small one that had double spear pull sealing it’s fate and it had two leaves at the time that happened, three years later with no spears it still had two leaves so I finally dug her out. How sad it’s beautiful palm

In fact, I think I obtained mine from you, Mike.