This pod split open today, which is always amazing. I'm having trouble understanding the difference between the butyracea and cohune. The fruits seem a little different but to my eye not by a lot. What should I look for to figure out which of the two I have here?

Many thanks in advance.

Fabulous palm. I hope you get answers from some of our experts.

Whatever it is, she’s a beauty!

Not an expert but I don't think it's cohune.

How old is that palm? I noticed you are in Hawaii so it’s probably only a couple years old!!

9 hours ago, 96720 said:

How old is that palm? I noticed you are in Hawaii so it’s probably only a couple years old!!

I'm not sure how old but from what I understand all the palms here would have been planted between 2006 and 2016.

It's a giant, hard to get the scale from this photo.

Most of the gardens in East Hawaii where I’ve seen Attalea, most have been A. cohune, for what’s that worth. I’ve one in the garden, but it is still young and rather small.

Tim

1 hour ago, realarch said:

Most of the gardens in East Hawaii where I’ve seen Attalea, most have been A. cohune, for what’s that worth. I’ve one in the garden, but it is still young and rather small.

Tim

Hi Tim, thanks for chiming in, I think that probably answers it. They probably all came from the same source?

This has been a really fun palm to watch evolve. It is starting to have a trunk but probably still a ways off from the fronds not just growing straight up.

Took this photo of A. cohune at a garden tour in lower Puna back in 2013. I can only imagine what it looks like now. Yours is beautiful.

Tim

I have some of these planted in my jungle in Phoenix they are beyond sloooooooow!!!!

9 hours ago, realarch said:

Took this photo of A. cohune at a garden tour in lower Puna back in 2013. I can only imagine what it looks like now. Yours is beautiful.

Tim

I couldn't help thinking about the space that takes just to cut up a dead old frond when it comes down. Living in an urban area where our green waste gets picked up and hauled away, the other challenge is how much space in the waste bins just one dead frond would take. And before that, the damage that one of those fronds dropping would create in a huge footprint. Not something for a little garden like either of mine even if they would grow here. They are beautiful though to admire in other gardens better equipped to handle them.

Here is my 5 gallon Attlelea cohune from FB that went in the ground in 2015. Still no trunk despite heavy fertilizer over the years. I almost never cut off an old frond. Not sure how that works.

The specimen that Tim showed above will get another visit by the Hawaii Island Palm Society in two months. We will tour Davis Dalbok's beautiful Mahonu Garden in Opihikao assuming they didn't suffer any serious hurricane damage. I'm guessing 13 years growth will have produced an even more impressive specimen.

Rick, you’ve shrunk! Good lord man, look at that thing…..’Litttle Audrey II’, don’t get too close. Thanks for the info about the garden tour, be nice to revisit.

Tracy, thankfully the frond drop on these monsters and others like them, are more infrequent than one would expect, but when they do it requires a bit of work for disposal. It takes a Sawzall to cut the frond into smaller sections with the thinner parts of the rachis and pinnae used as mulch straight away. The pinnae are removed on the thicker sections and again, used as mulch, the cleaned stems are then taken to the green waste dump. The saw makes quick work of the process, (my favorite tool), and they are tossed into the, ‘perpetual state of loading,’ truck bed. The life of an urban palm farmer.

Tim

21 hours ago, realarch said:

Rick, you’ve shrunk! Good lord man, look at that thing…..’Litttle Audrey II’, don’t get too close. Thanks for the info about the garden tour, be nice to revisit.

Tracy, thankfully the frond drop on these monsters and others like them, are more infrequent than one would expect, but when they do it requires a bit of work for disposal. It takes a Sawzall to cut the frond into smaller sections with the thinner parts of the rachis and pinnae used as mulch straight away. The pinnae are removed on the thicker sections and again, used as mulch, the cleaned stems are then taken to the green waste dump. The saw makes quick work of the process, (my favorite tool), and they are tossed into the, ‘perpetual state of loading,’ truck bed. The life of an urban palm farmer.

Tim

I need to invest in a Sawzall. I am still using a handsaw for most jobs and sometimes an axe for editing. Those are my Neanderthal genes coming through as Dana would say. I can learn though.

3 hours ago, Tracy said:

I need to invest in a Sawzall. I am still using a handsaw for most jobs and sometimes an axe for editing. Those are my Neanderthal genes coming through as Dana would say. I can learn though.

Tracy, this can be such a proficient tool, but beware! Once you make your first kill, so to speak, you get that ‘Freddy Krueger’ look in your eyes and wander the garden for what to cut down next. Or maybe that was just me. 👹

Tim

On 8/24/2026 at 11:05 PM, Patch said:

This pod split open today, which is always amazing. I'm having trouble understanding the difference between the butyracea and cohune. The fruits seem a little different but to my eye not by a lot. What should I look for to figure out which of the two I have here?

Many thanks in advance.

To me it looks most like butyracea just from its general aspect. I think it is A. butyracea.