 Re: Double Stacked Cocos Palm
This is a question I have had hanging around for some years, and your photos have prompted it yet again.
I have attached some photos of a Cocus palm I found some years ago. I sent them off to a number of palm societies and specialist nurseries in Aust and the US, yet no one could offer a reason. I settled on the phenomena of palm 'bottleneck' or 'increment variation', which is the stem diameter variation due to climatic or cultural practises. Pretty extreme though, and having experienced this in other specimens like the 3rd photo, it just dosn't quite gel. This 3rd photo, is the typical example of palms that have been kept in a pot within the nursery and then planted out. Notice how the taper changes consistently on all the palms, being the time of planting (I can confirm this, because I recall when these were planted). It is also a typical symptom of drought, etc.
Having spoken to the owner of the palm with the extreme stem change, the background fits with the 'bottleneck' theory. That is, the time of the extreme stem diameter change occured when they purchased the property and started watering and fertilising on a regular basis.
I am interested in what Sean Freeman had to say about a dysfunction between the roots and crown, and whether he has any further material, studies, resources on this aspect. |