|
| Still on holidays gallabanting around the country side but tomorrow pointing my nose towards home. One of the (many) highlights of my trip was getting around in amongst Licuala ramsayi. They're a truelly beautiful palm and seeing masses of them is quite mind blowing.
Picked a couple of dozen of what I thought were the best photos, and then narrowed it to down to these. Hope you enjoy them.
|
Follow-Up Postings:
|
| Wow, a Licuala forest, fantastic. Where were you? Thanks for posting, beautiful pics. |
|
- Posted by tropicbreezent (My Page) on Mon, Sep 17, 12 at 21:28
| Thanks Bradleyo. That was in the Daintree Rainforest, in North Queensland. It's real "Enchanted Forest" country. |
|
| Australia is a place I've always wanted to visit. I love the pics looking up into the canopy, I didn't know there were licualas even got that big. I always thought they were small understory palms. I don't think that they are even capable of growing on the mainland here, so I guess I never thought about it much. Are they as un-hardy as lipstick palms (the genus and species escapes me right now). I may have seen a few in South Florida but if so, they were very small compared to the ones in the pic. I know lipsticks are not hardy there even though coconuts are solidly hardy. |
|
- Posted by orchiddude 7b ALabama (My Page) on Mon, Sep 17, 12 at 21:48
| Nice, I really like pics 4 and 6 looking upward under the leaves. |
|
- Posted by tropicbreezent (My Page) on Tue, Sep 18, 12 at 1:34
| I think L. ramsayi is the tallest growing Licuala, getting up to 15 metres tall. L. spinosa is the only Licuala more cold hardy than this one, but they're not frost tolerant. So, less cold hardy than Coconuts, more hardy than Cyrtostachys renda (Lipstick). Although, Lipsticks are very common as street plantings in the natural range of L. ramsayi. Yes, photo 6 would be great to have projected up onto the ceiling of my bedroom and have it slowly fade out into darkness as I fall asleep. |
|
| Hi My favorite genus of palms!! I have both a grandis and obicularis that have been limping along for years lol Besides being sensitive to cold also to wind, low humidity and direct sun . They are gorgeous though!! Thanks for the pix!! gary |
|
| They are awesome-so much so that I had to get one after looking at pics of them on the internet(-: great pictures-hopefully they are not as slow as they say but I will be happy if mine stays green and happy! |
|
- Posted by tropicalzone7 7b (My Page) on Tue, Sep 18, 12 at 23:53
| Wow, that is incredibly beautiful! Licuala ramsayi is supposed to have some cold tolerance to them also, I think they should be planted MUCH more in Florida. They are one of the nicest fan palms in my opinion, I always know Im in the "super tropics" when I see licualas! -Alex |
|
| Hi Much better choice for florida is Pritchardia pacifica. Get somewhat the same look BUT much hardier as well as much more tolerant of wind and sun. Much faster growing also gary |
|
| Licuala spinosa and L. ramsayi are more cold tolerant than coconuts. Same with L. peltata. All are growing here fine and survived with little or no damage after 2009-10 winter but our coconuts were killed. |
|
- Posted by tropicbreezent (My Page) on Sat, Sep 22, 12 at 6:41
| Gary, I'd definitely put L. ramsayi ahead of P. pacifica in the Beauty Stakes. But I am hoping that my P. pacifica do grow faster than my Licualas have been. |
|
| Hi I would too!!! but I've yet to see them used as street trees in this area while there are several groups of pritchardia they have survived several hard freezes as well as 100 MPH winds and full blazing sun.drought and right now I'm watching them as there in about a foot of standing water around them lol Licualas would have been toast by now lol i keep my obicularis in a heated shadehouse and it still limps lol Shreds in 25 mile winds NEVER going to be a landscape plant lol gary |
|
| Oh, those photos are stunning! Mature Licuala in habitat, that must have been so exciting. I saw a few stubby ones in Cambodia last week, but it will be a while before my photos are sorted out, and I am unsure of the ID. They were smaller understory Licuala. Love the photos, thanks! |
|
- Posted by tropicbreezent (My Page) on Sat, Sep 29, 12 at 20:58
| Gary, the obicularis I would definitely keep very sheltered. They're very beautiful, they're very delicate, and they're very expensive. The ramsayi are a lot tougher. They're rainforest emergents, but while small spend a long time under a virtually closed canopy. While on holidays I went through Mission Beach where ramsayi almost dominates much of the rainforest. Last wet season they had Cyclone Yasi, cat 5, make a direct hit. The ramsayi didn't seem much affected over most of the area I saw. I guess it would be a lack of tolerance to direct sun whilst small, and the fact that it's such a slow grower and stays small for a very long time that makes it too difficult for street planting. My Prichardia pacifica are right out in the sun and whilst a little yellower than I like following a very dry hot winter, they're still going okay. I thought they'd be a bit more touchy than that. I'm having trouble with my Licuala grandis. Planted 3 a number of years ago where they had some cover from some very tall coconuts (probably not a good idea anyway - falling fronds). But 2 years ago a lightning strike took out 6 of the coconuts. Of course, after an initial massive dropping of fronds (they have a hell of a lot up there in the canopy) then there's none. But that took away any shade for the grandis. This past winter has been very dry and the sun blazing hot. The grandis have most of their leaves toasted. Don't know whether I should dig them out and relocate, or just try and plant some fast growing shade. Too hot now to transplant but did get the first rain for this season today. Catkim, thanks, what's not to like about Licualas. When you get those photos sorted be sure to post them. We can have a go at trying to ID them. |
|
| Hi I lucked out with the obicularis ,nursery was going out of business so I got a five frond one for 10 bucks I also got both kinds of Joey palms and they are limping along also. Definitely NOT landscape plants lol. I'm no longer going to heat the GH so will see what happens lol I try to watch the various types of palms just to see how they react to various weather over time. Impressed with the Pritchardias another is Kerriodoxa elegans MUCh hardier than you would think!! There are some mature L. grandis but are always in special locations Would think ramsayi much more tolerant of wind due to the splits in the fronds?? Was curious as to the type of tree providing the "canopy" in your pix?? gary |
|
- Posted by tropicbreezent (My Page) on Sun, Sep 30, 12 at 21:14
| A five frond orbicularis for 10 bucks!!!!! You make me sick! LOL. This is the current price at the only nursery I know that has them: Orbicularis "200mm (pot) $100+". Mapu: "75mm $55". Kerriodoxa elegans: "200mm $35". A 200mm pot orbicularis probably wouldn't even have 5 fronds. And I don't even want to know about the Joeys. What decided me on getting Prichardia pacifica (apart from the price: $10 for a 200mm pot, large plant) was that it has more tolerance of higher pH. I think my soil is generally on the higher side. Although, the gardens are mulched heavily and that tends to lower the pH a bit in them. The Prichardias are out in the native soil in the open and seem to fend for themselves okay, some irrigation provided. Those photos were taken in a number of different locations, but all rainforest. The Daintree wet tropics/rainforest is the second largest continuous rainforest after the Amazon (but still very much smaller than the Amazon). So I don't know what all those larger trees were. There'd be a lot of different ones, and I don't go into trees so much as other plants. |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Palms & Cycads Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.