I was looking at some rainforest in north qld the other day and spotted these palms. Lots of purple on these ones.

The seedlings from these plants lacked any white under the leaves or the little whiskers on the midrib that cunninghamiana has. Any thoughts.

Another one

Those are fine examples! Didn’t folks used to refer to this palm as Mt. Lewis or something? The Sullivans here have a beauty , unfortunately too tall to see the crownshaft. Harry

This has been there a super long time.

I believe the palm on the left is the Archontophoenix. The garden is very old. Not sure what the large one on the right is. These were taken a while ago when I was gathering seeds.

1 hour ago, Harry’s Palms said:

Those are fine examples! Didn’t folks used to refer to this palm as Mt. Lewis or something? The Sullivans here have a beauty , unfortunately too tall to see the crownshaft. Harry

This has been there a super long time.

I believe the palm on the left is the Archontophoenix. The garden is very old. Not sure what the large one on the right is. These were taken a while ago when I was gathering seeds.

This can’t be Archontophoenix purpurea, what was called Archontophoenix sp Mt Lewis. Archontophoenix purpurea is white under the leaves with those little whiskers under the middle vein. These palms have neither.

This area is around 900km (540 miles) further south than Mt Lewis. It’s Mt Dalrymple at about 1000m altitude.

Archontophoenix purpurea has large fruit. These guys have small fruit like alexandrae. Lots of rotten seed on the ground. It’s a bit early for ripe fruit on these. Lots of pink flowers and immature fruit.

Very interesting and beautiful palms, thanks for sharing. Mt Dalrymple is close to Eungella which is known as the northernmost population of A. cunninghamiana. Bangalows also would be more likely to have this coloration than alexandrae, I think. I wonder if they might be hybrids. I would love to see more in depth study of the genus, clearly there is a lot of variability within especially A. cunninghamiana.

As you are aware of this is the colouration of the southern population of bangalows. Iam leaning on purperea that was my first thought. And as discussed with you iam sure if it was a different species they would be onto it. Keep looking you just never know what you will find.

Trucking around the country side, be calling you the Leyland brothers next or is that Malcom Douglas.

1 hour ago, Tyrone said:

This can’t be Archontophoenix purpurea, what was called Archontophoenix sp Mt Lewis. Archontophoenix purpurea is white under the leaves with those little whiskers under the middle vein. These palms have neither.

This area is around 900km (540 miles) further south than Mt Lewis. It’s Mt Dalrymple at about 1000m altitude.

Archontophoenix purpurea has large fruit. These guys have small fruit like alexandrae. Lots of rotten seed on the ground. It’s a bit early for ripe fruit on these. Lots of pink flowers and immature fruit.

I’m pretty sure that the Sullivans had this palm labeled correctly . Only one is Archontophoenix and the fronds and crown shaft are not visible in the photo . The fronds that are visible are not Archontophoenix but something else. The collection was started sometime in the 1950’s Pauline and her husband have both passed on but the son and , now grandson , are maintaining the properties that have the collections . The rotted fruit could be from something else , there are a lot of palms there and I’m not sure the Archie is fruiting , it is very old and super tall. It isn’t as tall as the Ceroxilyn but close! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a pic of the fronds or the Purple Crown , the trunk seems to disappear into the sky! Small city lot with lots of mature palms. I have Purple crown Archontophoenix juveniles from my friends palm and yes they have silver undersides like Maxima and Alexandrae . Harry

2 hours ago, Harry’s Palms said:

I’m pretty sure that the Sullivans had this palm labeled correctly . Only one is Archontophoenix and the fronds and crown shaft are not visible in the photo . The fronds that are visible are not Archontophoenix but something else. The collection was started sometime in the 1950’s Pauline and her husband have both passed on but the son and , now grandson , are maintaining the properties that have the collections . The rotted fruit could be from something else , there are a lot of palms there and I’m not sure the Archie is fruiting , it is very old and super tall. It isn’t as tall as the Ceroxilyn but close! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a pic of the fronds or the Purple Crown , the trunk seems to disappear into the sky! Small city lot with lots of mature palms. I have Purple crown Archontophoenix juveniles from my friends palm and yes they have silver undersides like Maxima and Alexandrae . Harry

I’m sorry I probably didn’t word it right. I don’t doubt that the palm you posted in Pauleen Sullivans garden is correctly labeled and really is Archontophoenix purpurea. What I meant was the palm I posted up can’t be Archontophoenix purpurea because it’s 900km south of the Mt Lewis area. The purple palm I posted has no white under the leaflets, or whiskers under the mid rib. All Archontophoenix purpurea are white underneath and have those whiskers. Seed size is vastly different between the two as well as first leaf size of seedlings. Archontophoenix purpurea has large bifid leaves for ages. These ones are small from the beginning.

Misunderstanding , sorry!

That is curious . The palm in your pic sure is purple , I didn’t even look at the fronds for further ID . Lovely palm though . Maybe the cooler mountain temps at play ? Harry