Help needed to ID two palms - and whether they are the same

6 years ago

I am located in south Florida zone 10b. There are three palms in fairly close range. I will call them Palm A, B and C. Palm A is a large established palm, and Palm B and C are new growth about ten feet away which I am trying to determine if they may be babies of Palm A.

First, pictures of Palm A. Here is an overall view of the palm. It is a cluster with multiple trunks, the tallest about 25' tall. I was told this is a "Fishtail Palm". Can someone confirm?

Now, a few closer images.

It seems to be a clumper with new shoots coming up from the existing base.

Is it possible to separate these new shoots in order to plant more of this at another location?

Now some images of Palm B and C. I think these are NOT babies of the clumping fishtail palm correct? The leaves look different to me, these leaves while truncated are much longer and feather like. However, this is the closest mature palm near them and I don't see any other palm nearby that looks related.

So, are the small Palm B and C also fishtail palm (if that's what Palm A is)?

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Comments (3)

tropicbreezent
6 years ago
The first palm is Caryota mitis, commonly called Clumping Fishtail palm.

The others look like Ptychosperma, probably P, macarthurii. Both these palm are spread by birds which eat the seeds. Not unusual for them to turn up in isolated places.
Miami Cuse thanked tropicbreezent
Miami Cuse
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you tropicbreezent for confirming these are not the same palms.

I like the fishtail palms since they provide filtered sun very nicely over my fish pond.

I noticed this palm when the leaves turn brown, the fronds do not drop to the ground like other palms. They seem to stay up there (for months. If you look at the first image there are many "branches" that have turned brown for months. I wonder if they will eventually drop?

I also wonder if it's possible to separate a shoot from the parent clump to plant is elsewhere. Difficult to impossible surgery perhaps?
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tropicbreezent
6 years ago
Haven't tried splitting off any Caryota but I think it would be difficult. Here there's seedlings coming up all the time and I'm forever pulling them out. When a trunk gets tall it starts to flower. After seeds develop the trunk dies off. There's always lots of new ones to take its place. I chop off the trunks before they flower. Old dead fronds stay a long time, they're not a "tidy" palm. One thing to watch is that the seeds are very toxic except for some birds. Don't know how they would be falling into a pond, whether they'd be toxic to fish. It would be worthwhile checking up on that.

Also get lots of Ptychosperma macarthurii seedlings coming up, I'm a bit more tolerant of those. They're a clumping palm but don't get as tall as the Caryota.
Miami Cuse thanked tropicbreezent