The bottle palm (Hyophorbe lagenicaulis) is one of the most distinctive palms planted around VR homes. A relatively small palm, the trunk has an interesting bottle shape topped by four to eight stiff, arching, feather-like fronds. As it ages, the trunk loses the bottle shape and becomes cylindrical.
It was long assumed that the swollen base was a water storage adaptation, but this has not been studied and bottle palms are only moderately drought tolerant, needing extra water during dry periods to look their best. The reason for the bottle shape is unclear, and indeed, nature does not need a “reason” behind every feature that evolution produces. The botanical name, Hyophobe lagenicaulis, translates roughly to “pig-food flask-stem!” The small fruits are not used as food by humans. Bottle palms are native to the Round Island in the Indian Ocean, where they are critically endangered because of habitat destruction. The forests were cleared for timber; goats and rabbits devoured seedlings preventing regeneration of the forest; non-native weeds choked out native plants; and rains washed away the soil. Growing the palms in South Florida and around the world in tropical and subtropical climates helps to prevent their extinction. With its attractive fronds, eye-catching trunk, disease-resistance, and slow rate of growth, bottle palm is a perfect choice for the landscaping of an individual home, planted singly or in groups.
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Queen palm is a South American palm that beautifies many VR homes. As you can tell from the photo above, their fronds each have several hundred gracefully hanging leaflets, their flowers are massed and look like Rapunzel’s long golden hair, and the numerous fruits start out green
(eventually ripening to yellowish orange). The scientific name for the queen palm is Syagrus romanzoffiana. Romanzoffiana honors Nicolay Rumyantsev (1754–1826) who sponsored the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe; obviously, there was some spelling confusion here, but once a plant name is assigned, the governing rules do not allow it to be corrected simply because the honoree’s name was misspelled. Unfortunately, the queen palms in Florida are succumbing to Fusarium wilt of queen palm and Mexican fan palm. (Mexican fan palms are the only other palm that carries this fungal disease, and I have never seen this palm type in VR.) There is no cure for this lethal disease and no way to prevent your palm from getting the disease: it is spread primarily through the air, and possibly also by birds and insects. It can also be transmitted by contaminated gardening equipment e.g., pruners, and, of course, it is always good horticultural practice to disinfect pruners between cutting plants. The palms can die as quickly as three weeks after the first symptoms (wilting and dying of the lower leaves) are noted. If you do have to replace a dead queen palm, you could consider a foxtail or a Christmas palm, which are both also non-native, moderately tall, feather palms. Other ideas can be found on the VR HOA website in the Landscaping publication entitled “Plant Identification.” Looking on the bright side, these substitutes are less likely to topple in high winds than the shallow-rooted queen palm. And there is another reason for not crying too hard over the loss of the queen palm: the Florida Exotic Pest Control Council lists this species as a Category II invasive: exotic plants that show signs of increasing in abundance, but that have not yet altered native plant communities. I will offer this long shot: maybe YOUR queen palm will live. Here’s a true story to support you in that hope. In the late 1970’s the flowering dogwood trees on the east coast were threatened by a fungal disease called anthracnose; many dogwoods did die, but one was found growing unaffected at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland! It was found to have 100% resistance to anthracnose, was cloned, and is now widely sold as Cornus florida ‘Appalachian Spring.’ So, if your queen palm looks healthy, don’t give up hope; plants, like people, have genetic diversity, and maybe you are the lucky homeowner with a rare queen palm that is resistant to Fusarium wilt. |
Katherine Wagner-Reiss has her botany Certificate from the New York Botanical Garden, where she is a volunteer tour guide.
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