New palm tree discovered

[xtremetrees]

2008 And just now finding this palm tree

the nutrient reserves of the palm become completely depleted as soon as it fruits and the entire tree collapses and dies.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/17/eapalm117.xml

[MasterBlaster]

Well that's unusual, interesting!

[xtremetrees]

They say you can see the trees on google earth i havent the time to look myself, they say maybe only 100 of them may exist and that they have existed for 80 million years.

[MasterBlaster]

Yeah, I caught that. I don't see how it's visible from GE, it didn't look THAT big.

[Skwerl]

Great article. You can easily imagine that it may have been brought there by early travelers/ explorers. Thanks Robert. 8)

[rumination]

Very interesting. Thanks for the link Robert.

[xtremetrees]

Its a palm so it doesnt have medullary rays to transfer the stored energy reserves like say a hard wood or a pine would transfer the energy from the core of the tree to the outer(correct me if wrong), so it makes sence how the palm even after 100 years of storing its reserves, deplete them in a few months. Whats astounding to me about this find is that the palm tree is wired to do just that. Bah, most palms, plants, trees flower every year. What the heck THis one only flowers once at the end of its life. Marvelous! :)

Normally nature abhors suicide I guess this is one of the few exceptions

[doggonetrees]

Interesting article- thanks!!

[vharrison]

Thanks for the link, I am printing it now to share with the guys at work.

[gf beranek]

That's neat. Thanks.

[Labour of Love]

OK, what I want to know is:

if you prevent the formation of fruit, (cut off the inflorescence either before or right after flowering) will the palm remain living??

[Skwerl]

For most palm trees, yes. Cutting off the seed pods normally will not affect the health of most palm species.

I'm being intentionally vague because if I claim an absolute then I will be assured of someone posting an exception and proving me wrong.
:|:

[vharrison]

i believe Brian is right, it does not affect most palms. However, there is a palm in Madagascar that dies after flowering once.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/01/17/eapalm117.xml

Dr. Dransfied is quoted in the article as saying there are 2,500 species of palms and only a handful flower and die.

[Skwerl]

SEE???!!! I told ya! :P

[rumination]

Haha! Gigi beat me to it!

[Labour of Love]

Therefore?? If used in a landscape setting, it could be induced to remain living by removing the inflorescence? That was what I meant to ask, rather than the generic "what if".

There was a bromeliad exhibitor at TPIE this past January that had a plant in a shallow, decorative bowl that was about 3' in diameter (the pot). The plant filled the pot and had a 10'-12' very branched inflorescence that was just beginning to pop flowers. It was almost unbelievable!! My understanding of broms is that (generally) they will pup before or during blooming and that the blooming plant will die off after its' seed making is completed. Truly, the thing looked like an agave bloom spike from a distance.

[rumination]

That's a good question, and while I don't know the answer for sure I would guess that the palm will not survive a whole lot longer if you cut the infloresence off. It will depend on what kind of flowering it does. If it flowers from the terminal (top) bud then cutting off the infloresence will actually kill it more quickly since that is the only growing point. However, there are some palms (Caryota spp.) that flower along the stem and then die. I'm not sure what the answer is for those but I suspect that they would die anyway.

Bromeliads are really cool. I worked at a bromeliad nursery for a summer many years ago, and until I left Hawaii I kept my own bromeliad collection with about 40 species.

[stehansen]

My parents had a "Century plant" cactus at their house that lived for 25 years or so and then shot up a huge stalk, flowered, and then died.