What's up with this palm? (picture)

[melon yost]

Not my tree, but I was wondering if that thin stump at the bottom is actually part of the tree and if so, what's caused it? I've never seen this before and it almost looks like it defies the laws of physics.

[tenchy]

looks like someone dug it out and planted it strange

[dk]

Could it be the soil underneath it was washed away in a mud slide? Pheonix palms do have a deep tap root and perhaps it was strong enough to hold up the plant and act as a trunk in its own? Sound strange, I know...

[simon]

Could it be that the frond bases have been stripped away? It certainly looks odd.

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

I'd be inclined to go with dk myself. Certainly looks like a large central root with a clump of now redundant feeder roots before the actual trunk starts. As dk says, mud slide possibly but other tree's not showing the same effect or just built up ground at one time and now leveled off and newer trees planted afterwards.

[Dave Brown]

That is not how Phoenix roots grow, they fan out at at least 45 degree angle, and are individual roots. I cannot see that on the lower trunk.

The bulbus bit does not look like a part of a palm, that I have ever seen before, anyway ,so I do not think the soil has been washed away. Also some of the other trees are large and they are generally felled in any major earth movement.

My guess is termites. The big bulbus thing a termite mound off the ground if it floods periodically, and they, or something has stripped away all the leaf bases. Maybe that is what the mound is made of

I blew the pic up to large size to see if any photographic jiggery - pokery, but can't see any. Take a look at the full size pic

Whatever the palm does not seem to be harmed by it

[Conifers]

I'd guess someone (a) trimmed off the leaf bases on the bottom, leading to the narrow bare lower trunk, and (b) tied on some stuff just above, to grow epiphytes on.

Whatever the palm does not seem to be harmed by it

Not convinced! . . . those fronds look rather yellow to me, and with some brownish tip dieback.

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

Melon Yost,

Do you have access to the tree or know the owner ?

[melon yost]

Melon Yost,

Do you have access to the tree or know the owner ?

It's located at Batumi Botanical Garden in Batumi, Georgia so I can access it, but don't know who owns it. There's several others in the garden with slightly deformed lower trunks, but none to the same extent as this one.

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

Came across this foto and to me it looks so similar to the one above i.e the swelling at soil level etc I wonder if the soil was removed from this one, would we see what is in the foto above

[Dave Brown]

I've been looking at this on and off, and seeing your pic Mark, it suddenly dawned on me that there has been extensive damage to the lower trunk. If there are several affected something has happened to them. Basically you can see the stripped trunk but with a huge hole at the front. Not sure what may have caused that, but could be something like overzealous cutting off the leaf bases, allowing infection in, or a ground fire. It looks like part was damaged deep into the trunk itself.

On second thoughts the big bulbous bit could be it's attempt to grow roots down the outside of the damage

If that was the case it would effectively mean you could cut the crown off with part of the trunk and root it as a cutting

[Alexander]

Looks like some cancer.

Alexander

[Livistona]

Looks like some cancer.

Alexander

If not caused by the natural environment, will probably be a deformity or gene defect.

[jacko]

found this pic also from Batumi Botanical Garden in Batumi, Georgia.its trunk too looks deformed at the base.maybe its some kind of canker.

[Dave Brown]

Looks like some cancer.

Alexander

If not caused by the natural environment, will probably be a deformity or gene defect.

That is very unlikely if several are affected. If you have such a genetic deformity it would only perhaps affect one palm in a local area, and in the natural world they don't tend to survive.