Rhapidophyllum Vol 9-1 (Fall 2001)

Fall
2001
Journal of the Southeastern Palm and Exotic Plant Society
Volume 9, No. 1
Contents
From the editor
3
SPEPS news
3
Palm profile:
Dwarf palmetto
A minor geography lesson
5
7
Discovery:
Finding Sabal sp. ‘Tamaulipas’
in northeastern Mexico
8
The most inland Sabal minor
in the southeastern U.S.
11
Possible Trachycarpus takil
planting in upland S.C.
12
Book review:
Journeys Through Paradise 13
Backyard reports:
Hardy palms in southern
14
Illinois
Front cover: Sabal sp. ‘Tamaulipas’ blooms in the garden of Joe LeVert at
Augusta, Ga.
Photos are by the editor unless otherwise noted.
Rhapidophyllum is the quarterly journal of the Southeastern Palm and Exotic Plant
Society, the southeastern (non-Florida) chapter of the International Palm Society. SPEPS
members are devoted to growing palms and other subtropical plants in USDA Zones 7, 8
and 9. Visit the SPEPS website at www.speps.net.
Membership in SPEPS is open to all. Benefits include a subscription to Rhapidophyllum,
quarterly meetings at public and private gardens in the southeastern United States, and
auctions and sales of rare plants. To join, send a check for $15 to the treasurer. Membership is for one calendar year, and membership requests received after October will be applied to the following year unless otherwise requested.
SPEPS members are encouraged to join the International Palm Society. IPS dues are
$35 per year and include the quarterly journal Palms. Send dues to: The International Palm
Society, P.O. Box 368, Lawrence, KS 66044. Visit the IPS website at www.palms.org.
Contact the Southeastern Palm and Exotic Plant Society
OFFICERS
President
Tom McClendon
4531 Highway 15 South
Greensboro, GA 30642
[email protected]
Vice-president and
webmaster
Don Coleman
5270 Stony Mill Road
Keysville, GA 30816
[email protected]
Rhapidophyllum editor
Jeff Stevens
10665 High Point Road
Apison, TN 37302
[email protected]
• Rhapidophyllum is published in
March, June, September and
December. E-mail items for
publication by the 15th of the
preceding month.
Secretary
Gene Cooper
2015 Wrenwood Drive SE
Huntsville, AL 35803
[email protected]
Treasurer and membership
Bob Snyder
1450 Norwich Road
Winston-Salem, NC 27127
[email protected]
• Please include your phone or
e-mail when corresponding.
North Carolina
Gary Hollar
680 Crump Farm Road
New Bern, NC 28562
[email protected]
South Carolina
Tamar Myers
2506 Long Cove Court
Mt. Pleasant, SC 29466
[email protected]
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Alabama
Hayes Jackson
1300 Old Gadsden Highway
Anniston, AL 36206
[email protected]
Tennessee
Will Taylor
212 Oak Street
Athens, TN 37303
[email protected]
Georgia
Will Roberds
2019 McLendon Ave NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
[email protected]
Director-at-large
Joe LeVert
1901 Pennsylvania Avenue
Augusta, GA 30904
[email protected]
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
From the editor
After a seemingly endless spring,
summer arrived in the southeastern
United States. Did anyone else think
that their subtropical plants got a late
start this year?
But the cool spring and mild summer brought frequent rainfalls that
finally broke three years of drought.
That’s meant less watering, but more
weeding and mowing. But given a
choice, I’m sure most of us would
take the rain. It’s pushed the palms,
cannas, ginger lilies and other plants
into some amazing growth this season.
It’s great to see SPEPS members
involved in activities that promote the
appreciation of hardy palms and increase the demand for a wider selection of ornamental plant choices. The
Member’s Activities column was added last issue to give a little recognition
to your efforts. Don’t be shy about
letting me know what you’ve been up
to. Activities with public impact qualify.
And don’t forget to occasionally
write about the successes and failures
in your own garden for the Backyard
Reports section. Your input helps
keep this journal happily balanced
between reference and personal experience.
—Jeff Stevens
SPEPS news
Upcoming meetings
 FALL—October 13, 2001, at the
gardens of Don and Belinda Coleman and Chuck and Barbara
Mooney near Waynesboro, Ga.
 WINTER—February 16, 2002, at
the Bamboo Farm and Coastal Gar-
Page 3
den near Savannah, Ga.
 SPRING—April 27, 2002, at the
Marietta, S.C., garden of Mike
Turner.
 SUMMER—June 29, 2002, at the
garden and nursery of Gary Hollar
at New Bern, N.C.
 FALL—October 12, 2002, at the
Stockbridge, Ga., garden of Bill
Manley.
Fall meeting
The fall meeting will be held on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2001, at the gardens of
two long-time SPEPS members in
Burke County, Ga.
The day will begin at 10:30 am at
the garden of Don and Belinda Coleman. Don serves as SPEPS vice president, and the Coleman’s garden features a wide selection of palms, an
impressive collection of cycads, and
bananas, eucalyptus and hardy citrus.
In the afternoon, we’ll proceed to
the garden of Chuck and Barbara
Mooney. Chuck has assembled an
amazing array of palms, many of
which are mature and fruiting. Notable specimens include an 8-foot Livistona dicipiens, Butia × Syagrus,
Brahea clara, Sabal sp. ‘Tamaulipas,’
Butia eriospatha and B. yatay.
The day will include a brief business meeting, including the election of
officers, and the annual plant sale.
Lunch includes a Low Country Boil,
courtesy of the Mooneys.
Depending on interest, an excursion to the Ogeechee River (20 miles
away) to see native Rhapidophyllum
hystrix and Sabal minor is planned for
4:00 pm.
Directions: Both gardens are
located just south of Augusta, Ga. ►
Page 4
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
at Waynesboro, and Augusta, 30
minutes to the north, has many overnight accommodations.
Summer meeting report
Fifteen SPEPS members braved the
southbound weekend traffic to attend
the summer meeting at the Harry P.
Leu Gardens in Orlando, Fla. Eric
Schmidt, the palm collection curator,
gave a tour of the collection, with
pauses for tropical flowering plants,
tropical conifers and the xeric collection.
After a quick lunch, the group
headed east of the city to Bobbick’s
Nursery, arriving during a heavy
downpour. (The Orlando airport recorded five inches of rain that afternoon.)
continued on page 14
The SPEPS group (minus photographer) poses under the silvery Bismark
palm (Bismarkia nobilis) at the
Harry P. Leu Gardens in Orlando.
Photo by Tom McClendon.
To reach the Coleman’s garden
(where the meeting begins) take Interstate 20 to Exit 196 and turn south
onto Interstate 520. Continue for 7.5
miles and exit right onto to US 25
towards Waynesboro. Go about 6
miles to GA 88, turning right toward
Hephzibah. Take the first left after the
light, turning onto Brothersville Road.
Veer to the right in front of the high
school onto Story Mill Road. Follow
Story Mill Road about 9 miles, passing a fire station and golf course. The
house is on the left at 5270 Story Mill
Road at the intersection with Chris
Circle. Directions to the Mooney’s
will be given out at the meeting.
Accommodations: There is a
Holiday Inn Express and Jameson Inn
Eric Schmidt explains how difficult it is
to grow the tender coconut palm
(Cocos nucifera) in Orlando’s Zone 9
climate. Some challenges —
and frustrations — are universal.
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
PALM PROFILE
Dwarf palmetto
Sabal minor and
S. minor var. louisiana
Sabal is probably derived from a
Native American name and minor
is Latin for lesser or smaller.
Description
The dwarf palmetto is sometimes described as clumping, but in fact has
only one trunk, which is either very
short or entirely below ground. The
leaves are slightly costapalmate in
shape and vary from green to bluegreen in color, with usually no more
than a half-dozen on a single plant.
They differ from the leaves of
other native dwarf palms by having a
split “V” right in the middle, which
looks a little like the Vulcan salute
from Star Trek. Easily distinguished
from the saw palmetto (Serenoa re-
Page 5
This Sabal minor var. louisiana was
planted from a 3-gallon pot last summer and is about half its mature size.
pens) because S. minor has no spines
on the leaf petiole.
The western form, S. minor var.
louisiana, resembles S. minor but
eventually forms a squat trunk. There
are several growing in the Mississippi
River delta below New Orleans with
trunks as high as 10 feet (3 meters).
Size
The usual size is four to five feet (1.5
meters) high and wide. Growth rate is
slow to moderate. S. minor var. Louisiana eventually forms a short trunk,
usually remaining under five feet.
Most plants have between five and ten
green leaves at a given time, giving
the palm an open look that lends itself
to underplanting with shorter annuals
or perennials. The inflorescences project beyond the leaves. ►
Page 6
Range
Sabal minor is the most far-ranging
native palm, growing from North Carolina west to Dallas, Texas. It’s the
only native palm to grow any distance
north of the Fall Line, and populations
can be found up the Savannah River
to Elberton, Ga., up the Coosa River
to Center, Ala., and into McCurtain
County in southeastern Oklahoma. In
the east, it ranges from southern Florida up to Dare County, N.C.
One unverifiable reference from
the 19th century mentions it growing
in the Mississippi Valley at the southern tip of Missouri, but there have
been no modern sightings there and
it’s habitat would have long been
cleared and drained for agriculture.
S. minor var. louisiana is found in
Louisiana and southeastern Texas.
These populations apparently exist
alongside the standard S. minor.
There is also a population of mystery sabal palms in Brazoria County,
Texas, that form quite tall trunks to 28
feet (8 meters). They have been variously described as S. minor, S. minor
var. louisiana, and as a hybrid between S. minor and S. mexicana called
S. × texensis.
Habitat
Sabal minor is native to low, swampy
areas with seasonal flooding along
major rivers and their tributaries.
While tolerant of winter flooding, it
apparently needs a drier environment
during the growing season, and is not
found in areas that stand under permanent water.
S. minor var. louisiana is found in
the same habitat as S. minor and in
floodplains.
Cold hardiness
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
Zone 7a. Hardy throughout most of
the southeastern United States, but not
quite as hardy as the needle palm
(Rhapidophyllum hystrix).
Established plants will take short
spells of subzero weather, though
some leaf damage may occur if temperatures go much below 10F (-12C).
S. minor is reputed to be slightly hardier than S. minor var. louisiana. Like
the needle palm, not really bothered
by cold, wet winters. Wild specimens
are often under shallow water during
the winter months.
Culture
Dwarf palmettos prefer a moist, sunny
location. The bank of a creek or lake
is an ideal situation.
Although they are native to areas
with a high water table, this doesn’t
necessarily mean that they prefer this
environment. It may only mean that
the species inhabits this niche because
there is less competition. In fact, like
several bottomland species (bald cypress, for example), Sabal minor
grows very well in an upland environment and is fairly tolerant of drought
once established.
These palms will also tolerate a
fair amount of shade, but growth and
blue color will be best in full sun. Any
soil with adequate moisture is fine.
They only thrive in areas with hot,
humid summer weather and tolerate
some salt spray.
Landscape use
Probably best in groups, but can also
be effective as a single specimen.
There is a truly beautiful planting of
dwarf palmettos around the central
fountain at Brookgreen Gardens, just
south of Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Notes
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
Old plants develop an underground
trunk and deep root system that makes
them difficult to move, a useful fact to
remember before planting. Even small
wild-grown plants have extremely
deep roots that usually make them not
worth the trouble of moving. Easily
grown from seed.
This palm has an image problem
that results from its confusion with the
saw palmetto (Serenoa repens). Unlike the saw palmetto, the dwarf palmetto does not have spiny leaf stems,
has much larger leaves, and does not
spread over a large area.
Related species
Another as-of-yet unnamed dwarf
palmetto has recently been discovered
in the mountains in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Informally called
Sabal sp. ‘Tamaulipas,’ it’s currently
being grown by several SPEPS members.
Its leaves are somewhat thicker
and more costapalmate than those of
S. minor, and the blue color of its
leaves is especially attractive. Cold
hardiness is still under evaluation, but
should be roughly the same as for the
other dwarf palmettos.
Adapted from The Palm Reader, by
Joe LeVert, Tom McClendon and Will
Roberds. ■
A minor geography
lesson
by Tom McClendon,
SPEPS president, Siloam, Ga.
A heated discussion among hardy
palm enthusiasts can often be triggered by asking how many Sabal spe-
Page 7
cies there really are. Many want to
grow as many species as possible, and
for this reason often prefer to think of
Sabal minor var. louisiana as a separate species. But taxonomists don’t
recognize S. minor var. louisiana as a
species, and many are likely to lump
several oddball Sabal variants together that may or may not have specific
characteristics of merit.
Most palm enthusiasts aren’t taxonomists, and their interest lies in a
plant’s appearance. And while it’s
true that most palms affiliated with
Sabal minor are similar in appearance
(as are all Sabal species to some degree), there are enough differences to
make individual populations horticulturally interesting. In fact, just about
every local population of S. minor is
unique in some way.
Below are a few of the S. minor
variants. We’ll leave it up to you —
and maybe the taxonomists — to decide if they’re separate species.
Sabal minor ‘Blountstown’
Apparently a true genetic dwarf from
the Apalachicola River valley of Florida, this palm matures at a mere 18
inches (0.5 meters) in height.
Sabal minor ‘Hatteras’
Most trunking dwarf palmettos hail
from the westernmost part of their
range. This population, found on the
Outer Banks of North Carolina, is
extremely robust and there are many
individuals with 4- to 5-foot (1.5 meter) trunks. Leaf color is a striking
powder blue.
Sabal minor ‘Texas Hill Country’
Defying all reason, this dwarf palmetto grows in a xeric habitat at an ►
elevation of 2,000 feet with cactus and
Page 8
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
DISCOVERY
Seed of Sabal sp. ’Tamaulipas’ with
smaller S. minor seed, shown at about
one-half actual size.
yuccas. When in cultivation, it grows
a trunk much like S. minor var. louisiana. Since most botanists “don’t do”
palms, its exact taxonomic status remains a mystery.
Sabal sp. ‘Tamaulipas’
An article in Palms, the journal of the
International Palm Society, identified
this as a disjunct population of Sabal
minor — which it may be. But its
leaves are larger, thicker and more
heavily costapalmate. It blooms earlier than any other Sabal species under
Southeastern conditions. Its seeds are
twice the side of S. minor seed, and
seedlings can grow to twice the size of
S. minor seedlings in the same amount
of time.
Sabal ‘× texensis’
The famed Brazoria palm from Texas.
If it’s Sabal minor, it represents the
opposite extreme of the genetic bell
curve from the Blountstown variety
because some individuals of Brazoria
palm have trunks more than 25 feet (8
meters) in height. Researchers have
proposed that this palm is a natural
hybrid between S. minor and S. mexicana, and variations in leaf type and
trunking habit support this. It seems to
be a little less hardy than S. minor and
needs further hardiness testing. At any
rate, the Brazoria palm will be a rare
and beautiful addition to your palm
collection. ■
Finding Sabal sp.
‘Tamaulipas’ in northeastern Mexico
by Carl Max Schoenfeld,
owner of YuccaDo Nursery,
Hempstead, Texas
While traveling in northeastern Mexico in 1988, we noticed an isolated
colony of Sabal mexicana (Texas palmetto) guarding a remote gravel road.
We were driving south in what
amounted to a saddle. Over the foothills to our east was the small town of
Villa Mainero, in western Tamaulipas.
To our west abruptly rose the sierra
that divides the humid lowlands from
A mature planting of Sabal sp.
‘Tamaulipas’ at Peckerwood Gardens,
Hempstead, Texas.
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
Page 9
Sabal mexicana (Texas palmetto) guards the entrance to the unique habitat
where Sabal sp. ‘Tamaulipas’ was discovered. Photo by the author.
the cool and dry highlands. These
foothills, rising to 3,000 feet, create
the environment that starts the transitional zone. The 7,000-foot elevation
of the Sierra Madre Oriental in this
area guarantees the rainfall necessary
to achieve a unique flora.
Curiously, as we drove on we
noticed that there were no smaller
palms under the statuesque 40-foot
trees, or along the dry stream that runs
up the valley from south to north.
Continuing south, the tall S. mexicana gave way to an understory of
smaller, trunkless Sabal palms growing in the shade of 20- to 30-foot oaks,
mostly Quercus canbyi (Canby oak)
and Q. risophylla (loquat-leaved oak).
This area is about 1,500 feet in elevation and receives 30 to 40 inches of
rain per year. In places where geolog-
ic uplift forms miniature mountains of
pure shale, Dioon edule var. angustifolia (chamal) dominates.
Farther on we came upon a clear
stream that abruptly turned and dove
east through the solid folds of rock that
form the foothills. The trunkless palms
were numerous in this area and no trunk
-forming specimens could be found.
At first, we thought the smaller
palms were seedlings of S. mexicana.
But late one summer afternoon several
years later we found them in seed. The
narrow flower spikes held large seeds
and extended up and beyond the broad
blue-green leaves. The seeds were very
large and flat like M&M candies, but
were colored a rich mahogany.
We went back to inspect the large
S. mexicana for seed and found that
their old flowering branches were a ►
Page 10
many-branched panicle held within
the foliage. They also actually hung
below the leaf base, quite different
from our smaller palm. Could it be a
different species or were they just
juvenile S. mexicana that were flowering prematurely?
We gathered seed from the trunkless sabal palms and planted them.
They germinated quickly and we offered them in our catalogue in the fall
of 1990 as Sabal sp. ‘Tamauli-pas,’
collection T17-55. We affectionately
referred to our new palm as the
“Mexican minor.” (We’d previously
grown S. minor, which is considerably
slower to grow and mature than Sabal
sp. ‘Tamaulipas.’)
Hardiness reports later came in
showing that it was proving adaptable
in Anniston, Ala., Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., and Raleigh, N.C., with no
damage near 0F (-18C) in Zone 7b.
Customers in Europe reported their
success as well, but we are waiting to
confirm these reports.
A few years later we found our
way through the maze of roads that
leads up the Rio Purificacíon into the
Sierra Madre Oriental, 50 miles south
of the original discovery site. This
region is backed by several mountains
reaching to over 9,000 feet, so as you
can imagine, the entry into this canyon was dramatic.
This area receives twice the rainfall as the northern site. Driving up
the very steep road was further complicated by small streams of water
flowing down its gravel surface.
As you are being tossed from side
to side you catch glimpses of bright
red berries in the shade of subtropical
shrubbery. Chamaedorea radicalis
makes its northernmost appearance
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
here in the deep protected canyon.
The limestone ridges and cliffs are
covered with Brahea dulcis (rock
palm), while the dense forest below is
comprised of Pinus pseudostrobus
(Mexican white pine), Quercus polymorpha (Monterey white oak) and
Q. risophylla. All rise to 80 feet or
more due to the generous rainfall.
Driving through this lush temperate forest to about 3,000 feet in elevation, we came upon ancient specimens
of Sabal mexicana towering into the
canopy. We saw and heard pileated
woodpeckers in the distance.
Here and there we could find
every size of S. mexicana imaginable.
Some had short trunks and others had
no trunks but they were identifiable
because of the size of their leaves and
petiole length.
After carefully looking the young
palms over, here and there we could
spot the same smaller sabal palm we'd
previously found to the north. Where
the road cut through the forest a few
specimens revealed an interesting
feature. Their trunk ran horizontally
along the ground, while similar-sized
S. mexicana plunged their taproot
deep in the ground and grew upward.
In another area further up the
road we found one of the small Sabal
palms running off of a limestone
bluff. It became apparent that this
palm runs on the ground, while its
relative, S. mexicana, stays put and
forms a permanent root run.
Very old specimens of Sabal sp.
‘Tamaulipas’ could be traced back
over four feet of horizontal trunk to
where the plant originated. These old
trunks die and wear away with time
and new roots form at the crown’s
moveable base, somewhat like the
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
Page 11
habit of Serenoa repens, the saw palmetto.
Despite its remote origin, the
Mexican minor is here to stay. Our
original plants are now seven feet tall
and are producing viable seed.
Though this palm’s life cycle has
gone full course here in 15 years, its
identity is still a mystery! ■
The most inland
Sabal minor in the
southeastern United
States
by Jeff Stevens, Apison, Tenn.
On a dreary, drizzley December day
last winter, Gene Cooper, Hayes Jackson and I explored several low-lying
areas along the Coosa River in northeastern Alabama.
We wanted to see for ourselves
what were reported to be the Southeast’s most inland native dwarf palmettos (Sabal minor). Another powerful motivation for the excursion was
the chance to spend the day outdoors
in the rain with the temperature never
rising above 37F (3C).
Winter is a great time for spotting
evergreen plants, and we hoped that
the palms would be easy to pick out in
the woods. Hayes had heard of a number of sites in Etowah and Cherokee
Counties with native S. minor, and we
searched two of them.
The upper valley of the Coosa is
a like finger of the Gulf Coastal Plain
pointing northeast into the lower Appalachians about 80 miles northeast of
Birmingham. The valley sits at 550
feet above sea level, but is literally in
the shadow of Lookout Mountain, and
Three Alabama natives: Hayes
Jackson and Gene Cooper with a
small Sabal minor.
not far from Alabama’s only ski resort. (Where I understand that not
much skiing has taken place during
recent winters.)
Coastal Plain species such as
swamp bayberry (Myrica heterophylla), Carolina jessamine (Gelsem-ium
sempervirens), yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) and large specimens of evergreen
sweetbay (Magnolia virginiana var.
australis) are locally abundant. One
local resident introduced alligators
into Ballplay Swamp a few years ago,
and they survive to this day.
The first site we searched, along
the banks of the Coosa in Cherokee
County, turned up nothing. We drove
west into Ballplay Swamp, and before
long, Gene spotted several small palms
continued on page 15
Page 12
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
Possible Trachycarpus
takil planting in upland
South Carolina
By Marc Caramuta, Waxhaw, N.C.
In the summer of 1996, six Trachycarpus were planted in the northern
Piedmont of South Carolina. The
freeze of early 1996 had killed six
5-gallon T. fortunei at the same location.
The new palms looked like little
windmill palms for a while. Then they
began to grow fast and got more robust in appearance. For the past few
years I’d written them off as just larger, stouter versions of the stiff-leaved
form of T. fortunei.
I recently stopped by for a look
and immediately realized that they are
likely T. takil. Each leaf has a distinctly large and twisted hastula. They’re
are also very stiff and leathery and
feel like palmetto leaves.
I counted about 50 segments on
one leaf. Many segments are actually
in the twisted area of the leaf and
quite small. The picture above gives
an idea of the scale of the leaves. The
lower picture shows the trunk with my
11-year-old son's hand on it for reference. I also noticed wooly tan-colored
tomentum on the bases of the younger
petioles.
These palms are planted on an
exposed hilltop and are buffeted by
winter winds where Agave americana
have been killed the last two winters.
Despite two winters with lows around
10F (-12C) and lots of ice last year,
the palms still have beautiful leaves
all the way to the ground.
Though they offer every indication of being true T. takil, there’s no
guarantee that they’re not a hybrid
that favors T. takil.
But having six plants with the
same characteristics, the odds are that
differing hybrid characteristics would
show up among the group. Expert
opinion is required to determine the
species with certainty.
The landscaper who planted
these Trachycarpus likes palms and
purchased them from a nursery in the
Raleigh, N.C., area that I was never
able to locate. ■
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
BOOK REVIEW
Journeys Through
Paradise: Pioneering
Naturalists in the
Southeast
Gail Fishman. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Fla. 2000. 307 pages,
23 photographs, 3 maps. 6” x 9.5”.
Publisher’s price, hardcover: $24.95.
“Twenty-four years after Columbus
bumped into the New World, Juan
Ponce de León ground his longboats
against the sandy beaches of a recumbent land.” Thus begins Journeys
Through Paradise, which
might have been subtitled,
Time Travel Through the
Southeast, 1516–2000.
In it, author Gail
Fishman, an experienced
conservationist who lives
in Tallahassee, profiles 13
men who explored the
wilderness of southeastern
North America and documented its natural history.
They wandered the
new English and Spanish
colonies, some funded by the kings of
England and France, or later, by the
United States. But many were on their
own, traveling with little more to fuel
them than their curiosity and the hope
of having their work published.
Often using the explorers’ own
words, Fishman follows their steps
from the peaks of the southern Appalachians to the Florida Keys. One botanist drove hungry alligators from his
camp. Another, who had earlier been
robbed and beaten in Afghanistan and
had then calmly resumed his plant
Page 13
collecting, confessed that while looking for the source of the Tennessee
River, he was “continually in dread of
stepping on snakes.”
Some chapter titles bear familiar
names such as John and William Bartram, John James Audubon and John
Muir. They left a legacy of impressive
writings, paintings and conservation.
But one of the book’s strengths is in
rescuing the memory of lesser-known
men whose contributions weren’t as
well publicized, but whose lives and
adventures were just as interesting.
Here is André Michaux discovering the bigleaf magnolia (Magnolia
macrophylla) and dodging international intrigue, Hardy
Bryan Croom finding the
stinking cedar (Torreya
taxifolia), and Dr. Alvan
W. Chapman, discoverer
of Rhododendron chapmanii, trying to keep his
balance as a Unionist
living in the South during
the Civil War.
But these stories
are more than an entertaining travelogue. The
book’s gentle conservation theme is underlined by the author’s account of how she personally
retraced the footsteps of the men she
profiles, many of whom urged the
protection of wild places from the beginning.
The endless Southeastern forests,
once home to the ivory-billed woodpecker and Carolina paroquet, are
gone. But recent conservation efforts
would certainly cheer the early naturalists. To find out more about one
organization’s efforts, visit The Nature Conservancy at www.nature.org.
Page 14
BACKYARD
REPORTS
Hardy palms in southern Illinois
John Abba
West Frankfort, Ill., Zone 6a/b
I live on five acres between West
Frankfort and Johnston City in southern Illinois. About 20 miles south of
West Frankfort we have hills that rise
to 1,065 feet above sea level and they
give you a feeling that you are in the
mountains, but my place is about 435
feet above sea level.
I planted my first needle palm
(Rhapidophyllum hystrix) from Plant
Delights in 1996. In 1997 I added
another needle palm, a dwarf palmetto
(Sabal minor) and three windmill
palms (Trachycarpus fortunei). In
1998 I added three more needle palms
and in 1999 another needle, another
dwarf palmetto, another windmill, two
Trachycarpus takil and four S. minor
from McCurtain County, Okla. This
spring I planted four more S. minor
from McCurtain and two more
T. takil.
Only five of these palms are
planted near the southeast side of the
house and porch with some wind protection. All the rest are 10 to 20 feet
south and southwest of the house with
no wind protection.
Each year I put up to two feet of
hay around each palm in late November. They have all survived so far, but
we’ve had mild winters with short
cold spells, and lows of 0F to 10F
(-18C to -12C).
But this past winter it stayed below freezing for three-and-a-half
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
weeks and some of our daytime highs
were 10F to 15F (-12C to -9C). We had
four mornings that got down to 0F
(-18C).
All the leaves on the Trachycarpus that weren’t covered by hay or
five to six inches of snow were lost.
Same story for the Sabal minor. Almost all the needle palm leaves were
above the hay and snow and the
leaves stayed green during the long
cold spell, but after the cold spell
some of the leaves showed half to
three-quarters damage inward from
the tips of the leaflets. But most of the
leaves had only some injury and all of
the palms are growing well now. ■
SPEPS news
Summer meeting report
continued from page 4
Bob and Marita Bobbick greeted
their soaked visitors with towels for
drying off. When the rain stopped,
they gave a tour of their five-acre
palm garden and nursery, which is
protected by an open forest of sand
live oaks (Quercus geminata). Many
left with a carload of hard-to-find
palms.
A visit to Cycad Jungle in Polk
City, Fla., was available for those who
stayed through Sunday.
Member’s activities
The garden of Austin and Tina
Brown in North Augusta, Ga., was
featured in the Augusta Chronicle in
August. Photographs of the Browns
and their garden and macaw illustrated the article, which was titled
“Tropical Dreams.”
Tony Cerbone of Dallas spoke to
groups at North Haven Gardens in
Rhapidophyllum, Fall 2001
June and September about growing
cold-hardy palms in the Dallas area.
Everyone who attended was offered a
seedling of Sabal minor var. louisiana, the dwarf palmetto.
The Raleigh, N.C., garden of Ed
Sessoms and Bill DeMent was featured in the August issue of Carolina
Gardener. The article, called “Into the
Jungle: Bold Foliage for a Tropical
Look,” mentioned palms, elephant
ears, bananas, gingers and other hardy
subtropicals, and included many photographs.
Ed and Bill’s garden was also the
subject of Erica Glasener’s HGTV
Gardener’s Diary in April. Those
wishing to catch a rebroadcast of the
program should look for episode GRD
613, “Rare and Unusual Plants.”
Jeff Stevens of Apison, Tenn.,
introduced the Hamilton County
(Tenn.) Master Gardeners to hardy
palms with a slide presentation featuring long-established palms in the
Chattanooga and Sparta areas. A needle palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix) was
given away as a door prize.
“The next time you want to experience the tropics, you may want to
head to Athens, Tenn.,” began a
WBIR-TV story on Will Taylor’s
garden. Will gave advice on the winter protection of subtropicals. The
Knoxville station aired the story in
August and displayed a print version
on its website at www.wbir.com. ■
Page 15
of any larger palms nearby, so we
guessed they’d grown there from seed
deposited by birds.
A hunter we spoke to directed us
to a trail across the road and described
some larger, fruiting palms a halfhour’s hike away. Not far down the
trail we entered an area heavily damaged by a recent tornado and spent a
lot of time climbing over toppled
trees. We finally reached Ballplay
Creek, and after several hours of
searching, we hiked back out, never
having found the fruiting palms.
The few dwarf palmettos by the
roadside would have to do for that
day. We hope to return again to search
that site and others to find the mature
plants and collect seed for propagation. But maybe on a warmer day. ■
Sources
YuccaDo will offer Sabal sp.
‘Tamaulipas’ in their 2002 catalog.
They also offer a dwarf palmetto
from a northeastern Mexico population, listed as Sabal aff. minor.
YuccaDo
P.O. Box 907
Hempstead, TX 77445
(979) 826-4580
Web site: www.yuccado.com
E-mail: [email protected]
And here’s a sources for Guihaia
argyrata, the Asian or Chinese
needle palm, profiled in the summer issue of Rhapidophyllum.
DISCOVERY
Inland Sabal minor
continued from page 11
Gerry’s Jungle
730 Stallsworth Road
McDonough GA 30252
(770) 957-9099
in the woods along the road in Etowah
County. There was no sign of seed, or
Web site: www.neotropic.com
E-mail: [email protected]
Angel’s trumpets
(Brugmansia spp.)
are loud only to
the eye.
What a desolate place would be
a world without flowers!
It would be a face without a smile,
a feast without welcome.
Are not flowers the stars of the earth?
Are not our stars the flowers of heaven?
—Clara L. Balfour, British author, 1808–1878