Had 5 seeds sent to me (in 2006) from this particular Phoenix palm in Spain.  The picture isn't the best but was wondering if some of the Phoenix lovers / experts have an opinion on what variety it is...  

Seeds germinated quickly and 4 of the 5 have grown into nice 3 gal size plants in about 18 months.  Fronds on these plants are soft to the touch and not as prickly as a canary or dacty...   Jv

In this picture, the palm is the one on the left side.  You can see that it is much taller than both the canary in the middle or the dactylifera on the right side of the picture...   Jv

Hmm.  Looks a bit like a sylvestris, with those frizzy leaves.  I wish we could see what color it is.  Sylvies are whitish to silvery looking.

How about a pic of the babies you have?

dave

Dear iamjv  

even i agree with Dave,since in our country the one phoenix that you have show for identification looks 99.99% a regular

phoenix sylversteris...and for the first time i think iam right on this one...

here is a link to our phoenix that is growing here in south india..

http://palmtalk.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboar...t=ST;f=1;t=4118

love,

Kris  

Some for stills of the same palm but from various locations..

Now lets look at its trunk !

one more still..

Yeah that does look very similar.  I figured it was probably a sylvestris or sylvestris hybrid of sorts.  What made me question my original thought was how the fronds curve back on that palm.  I hadn't seen that in a sylvestris till Kris' last picture above, there you can see that palm doing the same...  

Dave as far as a pic of the babies, I'll try and get one this weekend however you won't be able to make much from them as they almost look like canary palms but just soft to the touch...

Thanks for the inputs.

Could be the Spanish date palm; Phoenix iberica. I saw these all over high elevations of Mexico in remote colonial towns, introduced by the Spanish.

  Did it have an orangish crownshaft/petioles?

KyleNcal, not sure on the color of the crownshaft/petioles as the pictures posted here are the only ones sent to me...  that would be neat if it is in fact Iberica.  

Of course, as close as that canary is to this palm (see second post), the seedlings I have from it might be hybrids between the two trees.  Iberica x Canariensis could be interesting.  Jv

Hey Dave So Cal,

Ok here are a couple of pics of the seedling...  like I said previously not much to get out of the pics.  However, I'll restate that the fronds are very soft like a roebelenii and the fronds have no stiffness to them at this stage.  Additionally, I noted there are no stiff leaflets near the base of the frond.  It's keeping me guessing as to what it could be....  Jv

close up

whatever it is that mama palm is nice. should turn out to be nice. phoneix hybridize easily so it could have some other blood also.

My Phoenix sylvestris or Silver Date Palm in the Costa Blanca has a trunk exactly the same and the shape also is the same although mine is a bit smaller.  But the trunk is different from other Phoenix palms. I am sure it is a sylvestris. Its lovely isn't it?

It'll be interesting to see how hardy this particular palm is also....  this year it took 23F without blinking and continued to still push the next frond.  I'll bet money that it's not as pure as the mama and probably has some canarensis in it.  Could be an interesting look...   Jv

Kris,

So you're seeds what have been sprouted just like that over 100 years ?

Robbin