Inflorescence Trachycarpus flowers - Male/Female

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Las Palmas Norte
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Inflorescence Trachycarpus flowers - Male/Female

Post by Las Palmas Norte »

Trachycarpus fortunei 'Nanital' flowering at the moment. It's male but appears to have a mixed (male and female) on the same stock. Is this what I'm seeing? I have rarely in the past seen entire stocks of inflorescence either male or female on the same tree, never mixed on one stock. Any thoughts?

Cheers, Barrie.

(one photo shows the male, second, the mixed inflorescence)
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inflorescence 011.jpg
inflorescence 010.jpg
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Dave Brown
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Dave Brown »

Hi Barrie,

Can't say anything about Nain Tal specifically, but both look like male Trachycarpus flower branches to me, but the flowers are not open yet. On male trees the flowers branches are pendulous, on female trees the flower branches are more upright. On a tree that has both I don't know what to expect, so you need to see the open flowers to determine. Male flowers look fluffy, en masse, where as female do not.

Male
220507 Male Trachy Flowers.jpg
Female
220507 Female Trachy Flowers.jpg
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Dave
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Las Palmas Norte
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Las Palmas Norte »

Great pics Dave :) Any of the female inflorescence I've seen have a much greener color, whereas the males are most certainly yellow (as well as the noted traits). That got me curious with the one showing mixed coloring. I suppose I'll have to wait and see what develops. Again, great photos Dave.

Cheers, Barrie.
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Las Palmas Norte
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Las Palmas Norte »

Dave ... I thought there was a mix of male and female flowers on the same stocks, especially evident in the second photo. Here's a shot today of the seeds forming in the same random pattern that appeared when it flowered. I've never seen this happen before. I have however seen separate male / female infloresence stocks on the same palm, but never a mix on the same stock.

Cheers, Barrie.

Image
Image
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Dave Brown »

That is very interesting Barrie :ahhh!: I've not seen that before apart from on my Chamaerops, where no famale palm is present. Have you got female trachies? Just a hunch.... but is it possible that a male tree senses there are no females nearby so produces some female flowers in an attempt at self preservation. :wink:
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Dave Brown »

Barry having relooked at your pics... The flower branch is quite upright and straight. Male branches are normally more pendulous. On reflection the flower branch looks more female. icon_scratch
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Las Palmas Norte
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Las Palmas Norte »

Dave Brown wrote:That is very interesting Barrie :ahhh!: I've not seen that before apart from on my Chamaerops, where no female palm is present. Have you got female trachies? Just a hunch.... but is it possible that a male tree senses there are no females nearby so produces some female flowers in an attempt at self preservation. :wink:
None ... Nada ... not one flowering female Trachycarpus. I wonder if your theory holds water since this is the first time it, or any of mine have flowered? How would this palm know that there wasn't any flowering females in the area?
As a side note ... this palm is one of the seed grown that where originally sold through RPS as "takil" and later clarified as Trachycarpus fortunei 'Nainital'. Perhaps this subspecies is more likely to "clone" itself? Humm ... thanks Dave for your thoughts on this one.

Cheers, Barrie.
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Dave Brown »

Las Palmas Norte wrote:[None ... Nada ... not one flowering female Trachycarpus. I wonder if your theory holds water since this is the first time it, or any of mine have flowered? How would this palm know that there wasn't any flowering females in the area?
As a side note ... this palm is one of the seed grown that where originally sold through RPS as "takil" and later clarified as Trachycarpus fortunei 'Nainital'. Perhaps this subspecies is more likely to "clone" itself? Humm ... thanks Dave for your thoughts on this one.

Cheers, Barrie.
Come to think of it Barrie, I seem to be talking rubbish, as my Trunky Trachycarpus was the only flowering Trachycarpus for about 13 years before trudi Trachycarpus started flowering, and I don't recall seeing any seed formationon on the male. However, on discussions over on EPS, it was talked about Takil having a perpensity to produce seed on male plants. Are you a member of EPS? It might be worth putting a post on there :wink: If your "Takil"..... "Naini Tal" from seed is one of the first to flower, and I don't recall hearing about others yet, the fact that they share the perpensity to produce seed on male trees might have some significance. icon_thumright. Might mean Naini Tal is much closer related to Takil than has been thought icon_salut
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Las Palmas Norte
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Las Palmas Norte »

Dave ... I'm not an EPS member nor do I visit their web-site. I just thought this was a bit interesting as I'd not seen this phenomenon before, and wondered if it had happened in the UK. If you want to bring up this topic with EPS, feel free to use any of my photos or info.

Cheers, Barrie.
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by Dave Brown »

As we are approaching flowering season for Trachies I thought I'd bump this topic up.

Useful if you want to know if your Trachycarpus is a male or female icon_thumright

Male flower branches are pendulus arching downward
TrunkyTrachy0011.jpg
Female flower branches are much more upright
020507 Pebbles Trachy.jpg
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Re: Inflorescence Trachycarpus flowers - Male/Female

Post by Dave Brown »

In re - reading this topic I think the inflorecsenses on your palm Barrie are female, and that the pollenating male is some distance away. I have found at 40 feet almost all female flowers are pollenated, however at 80 feet the pollenation rate drops to about 20%. This gives the sparse seed effect of your pics. :wink:
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Re: Inflorescence Trachycarpus flowers - Male/Female

Post by simon »

I presume from that, Dave that they are wind polinated. Is that the case for all palm trees? I would imagine that the the male inflorescences hang down in order to get out of the crown and into the wind. I cant think why the females would be errect though icon_scratch .
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Re: Inflorescence clarification.

Post by John P »

Las Palmas Norte wrote:Great pics Dave :) Any of the female inflorescence I've seen have a much greener color, whereas the males are most certainly yellow (as well as the noted traits). That got me curious with the one showing mixed coloring.

Cheers, Barrie.
Barrie I have 8 flowering trachys a mix of male and female. None of my females have green flowers and I do not recall ever seeing any. The flowers on mine are always yellow whether male or female.
By the way we do not bite on the EPS :mrgreen: its free and we are a great friendly bunch. The UK based exotic plant forums tend to have lots of members that appear on all forums like me.

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Nick

Re: Inflorescence Trachycarpus flowers - Male/Female

Post by Nick »

It looks like I have 3 males and 1 female if the females flowers look like small balls, and the males look like fish gills?

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Re: Inflorescence Trachycarpus flowers - Male/Female

Post by pipster 12 »

Its now October and it may be a tad too late for establishing the sex of my trachycarpus-but can anyone help with this picture (sorry a bit out of focus) is it male or female? Should have done this in May.

Important if your interested in producing trachycarpus hybrids?
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