Difference between revisions of "Parajubaea torallyi"

Revision as of 16:07, 22 September 2016

Pronunciation: pair-uh-joo-BAY-uh toe-RALL-ee-uh

Common Name:

Parajubaea torallyi is one of the very best but underused landscape palms for California, both northern and southern. It is an endangered species from Boliva. It was very rare in cultivation until the early 2000s when a lot of seed was shipped in from South America. Germination can be a bit unpredictable, but some have managed to grow them pretty well. Plants can be a bit difficult when young, but then begin to grow faster with age and become much hardier. Trunks tend to widen with age for the first 15 years of growth when finally their maximum diameter is attained. This is an immense palm and has the potential of being one of the most magnificent specimens of all the palms that can grow in California. Still no mature palms with clean trunk by 2014, but soon. There are many palms that are flowering and some even producing fruit already, though. The variety microcarpum has different sized seed, but not consistantly different as a mature palm.

Appearance and Biology

Habit: solitary with a crown of about 10-15 feather leaves
Height: 50' estimate
Trunk: single; 24" thick; covered with thick layer of fiber and leaf bases; tapering for first 10-15 years, then beginning to become columnar
Crownshaft: none
Spread: 15'-18'
Leaf Description: pinnate; upright to lateral, or even arching downward on mature palms; 13'15' long; leaves twisting often to oriented vertically; about 100 leaflets per side of each leaf; deep green on top, slightly silvery underneath new leaves with very thin striations
Petiole/Leaf bases: 3'-4' long; initially covered with some coppery scurf, but smooth and green after a year; come off the stem very upright (nearly parallel trunk); very base of leaf hidden beneath trunk fiber; unsplit; usually retained on trunk for many years (eventually coming off soon after fiber falls away)
Reproduction: monoecious
Inflorescence: from below living leaves alongside trunk; 1'-3' long; male and female flowers on side branches
Fruit: 2"-3" in diameter; spherical; edible; brownish

Horticultural Characteristics

Minimum Temp: 24F but some leaf burn likely in younger palms
Drought Tolerance: moderate
Dry Heat Tolerance: good
Wind Tolerance: moderate to good
Salt Tolerance: unknown
Growth Rate: slow to moderate with age
Soil Preference: very widely adaptable
Light Requirement: full sun
Human Hazards: none
Disease or Horticultural Problems: none, though unexplained deaths occasionally occur
Transplants?: very touchy
Indoor?: unlikely to be any good
Availability: rare, but periodically very available as seed gets shipped in from South America

@@ Line 40: / Line 40: @@
 File:Parajubaea torallyii humongous K.jpg|Huntington Beach, California
 File:Parajubaea torralyi microcarpa shot GL 14.jpg|Escondido palm, California, Levine garden, microcarpa form
+File:Parajubaea microcarpa shot 2 GB.jpg|microcarpa form San Diego County, California
+File:Parajubaea microcarpa crown GB.jpg|crown of microcarpa form
 File:Parajubaea torralyi wood 1.jpg|Fallbrook, California
 File:Parajubaea torralyi Ralph 11.JPG|Orange county, California

Difference between revisions of "Parajubaea torallyi"

Geoff Stein - Author & Editor

Revision as of 16:07, 22 September 2016