Quick help with ID please..

sashaeffer · Post by **sashaeffer** » Thu May 15, 2014 8:25 am

In Southern California with my truck and am finding these at Walmarts. ALL the tags say "Mexican Fan Palm" or simply "Fan Palm" yet the grow pots say either

Washingtonia Filifera or Washington Robusta I'm inclined to think the grow pot is right, not the tag dangling from the palm.

They do look different at the base, one pretty swollen, other not.

How can I tell? Want to get a Filifera, not a Robusta...I can get those in Omaha.

Thanks,

905palms · Post by **905palms** » Thu May 15, 2014 12:40 pm

More common are the Robustas, that's what they look like to me.

bananieru · Post by **bananieru** » Thu May 15, 2014 1:00 pm

usually if they have thorns are robusta

sashaeffer · Post by **sashaeffer** » Thu May 15, 2014 1:52 pm

Oh, never heard of the thorns/no thorns ID. That will make it easy.

Stevea07 · Post by **Stevea07** » Sun May 18, 2014 12:58 pm

All Washingtonia palms have horns.

Scott, if you don't find what you're searching for I have a seven gallon Washingtonia filifera for sale. It was produced from Dallas seed and saw 14.5F in the cold frame. It's 30 inches tall.

bananieru · Post by **bananieru** » Sun May 18, 2014 10:49 pm

http://www.floridata.com/ref/w/wash_fil.cfm

Washingtonia filifera...The petioles (leaf stems) of mature palms are armed along the margins with curved thorns; those of young palms are largely unarmed.

Stevea07 · Post by **Stevea07** » Mon May 19, 2014 3:25 am

bananieru wrote:http://www.floridata.com/ref/w/wash_fil.cfm
Washingtonia filifera...The petioles (leaf stems) of mature palms are armed along the margins with curved thorns; those of young palms are largely unarmed.

All young Washingtonia seedlings don't have any thorns, so it's not a reliable characteristic to look for. Once they start to form a a thicker base and split leaves they develop small, hard, yellow-green to green thorns capable of drawing blood.

sashaeffer · Post by **sashaeffer** » Mon May 19, 2014 7:11 am

Thanks for the link Steve, the side by side chart helped a lot.

bananieru · Post by **bananieru** » Mon May 19, 2014 3:27 pm

thanks, my understanding of young was wrong

Stevea07 · Post by **Stevea07** » Wed May 21, 2014 5:51 pm

bananieru wrote:thanks, my understanding of young was wrong :-)

You're welcome. I'm glad to share first hand observations that will hopefully replace some of the incomplete and incorrect info found on the internet.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu May 22, 2014 6:21 am

Pretty much everything you find out there will be a hybrid.

sashaeffer · Post by **sashaeffer** » Thu May 22, 2014 8:02 am

Thing is, nothing out there to find. Other than one Walmart never saw any Filifira's

Even the palm hobbyists I visited didn't have any...and they had THOUSANDS of palms to sell.

Even if I had gone back the way I came and stopped at that Walmart I don't know if it would have fit in the truck as it was pretty big and my truck bed is 6ft..plus truck full of palms as it is.

hardyjim · Post by **hardyjim** » Thu May 22, 2014 10:18 am

Yea...its always something,we still have to cover them but
you want a decent size but yet again-we have to cover