Tag: palm garden

Leipzig Palms Cultivating Hyophorbe Lagenicaulis Bottle Palms

Since last year Leipzig Palms cultivating new palm species who are also great indoor plants. In Germany or Europe they can grow also outdoors from spring to autumn. Some of them even can withstand light frost. The new palms and details will be published until the end of the year. Of course you can order the young plants at the best price on our pages. Orders by eMail are also possible and a complete new shop will come still this year! http://www.lepalms.shop

Hyophorbe lagenicaulis, the bottle palm or palmiste gargoulette, is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family. It is native to Round Island, Mauritius.

Bottle palm has a large swollen (sometimes bizarrely so) trunk. It is a myth that the trunk is a means by which the palm stores water. Bottle palms have only four to six leaves open at any time. The leaves of young palms have a red or orange tint, but a deep green is assumed at maturity. The flowers of the palm arise from under the crownshaft.

This species is often confused with its relative, the Spindle Palm, which also has a swollen trunk. However the Spindle palm’s trunk swells in the middle (resembling the shape of a spindle), whereas the trunk of the Bottle palm swells from near the base and tapers further up. Its inflorescence branches in 4 orders, and its 2.5 cm fruits can be orange or black. The trunk of both species becomes more and more slender as the palm ages.

Within Mauritius, the only other extant Hyophorbe species is the common Hyophorbe vaughanii. The Bottle palm can be distinguished from this species however, by its swollen trunk when young; by its much smaller (2.5 cm) orange or black fruits; and by its inflorescence, which branches in four orders rather than three.

The bottle palm is naturally endemic to Round Island, off the coast of Mauritius. While habitat destruction may destroy the last remaining palms in the wild, the survival of the species is assured due to its ubiquitous planting throughout the tropics and subtropics as a specimen plant. It is one of three Hyophorbe species which naturally occur in Mauritius, and one of only two that are still extant.

Bottle palms are very cold sensitive and are killed at 0 °C (32 °F) or colder for any appreciable length of time. They may survive a brief, light frost, but will have foliage damage. Only southern Florida and Hawaii provide safe locations in the USA to grow Bottle Palm, although mature flowering specimens may be occasionally be seen in favored microclimates around Cape Canaveral and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater in coastal central Florida. It makes a fine container-grown palm in other locations as long as it is protected from the cold and not overwatered.

Source: Wikipedia

The future of agriculture is ecofarming, community farming, urban gardening, greening, aqua-, hydro- and permaculture! Greening Deserts projects like Leipzig Palms (LE Palms) and Urban Greening will also work in these fields and areas. If we finally get a place to start with the first Research and Greening Camp in Africa or MENA region and Europe we can start finally with all the important projects and research.

We need more environmental awareness and sustainability (sustainable living and work) in all fields or areas. We need to create a world of understanding, acceptance, respect, tolerance, compassion and consciousness. – Oliver Gediminas Caplikas

Greening Deserts and Leipzig Palms Cultivating Rare Palm Trees

Greening Deserts projects like Leipzig Palms (LE Palms) do not conservating and cultivating just endangered plants like rare trees. Beautiful decorative and ornamental palm trees are another speciality.

We care for endangered animals and plants around the world. Show some love and support our projects by constructive feedback or by buying some palms or palm products. http://www.lepalms.shop 

Bismarckia (Bismarck Palm Tree) is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family endemic to western and northern Madagascar where they grow in open grassland. The genus is named for the first chancellor of the German Empire Otto von Bismarck and the epithet for its only species, Bismarckia nobilis, comes from Latin for ‘noble’.

Bismarckia nobilis grows from solitary trunks, gray to tan in color, which show ringed indentations from old leaf bases. Trunks are 30 to 45 cm in diameter, slightly bulging at the base, and free of leaf bases in all but its youngest parts. In their natural habitat they can reach above 25 meters in height but usually get no taller than 12 m in cultivation. The nearly rounded leaves are enormous in maturity, over 3 m wide, and are divided to a third its length into 20 or more stiff, once-folded segments, themselves split on the ends. The leaves are induplicate and costapalmate, producing a wedge-shaped hastula where the blade and petiole meet. Petioles are 2–3 m, slightly armed, and are covered in a white wax as well as cinnamon-colored caducous scales; the nearly-spherical leaf crown is 7.5 m wide and 6 m tall. Most cultivated Bismarckias feature silver-blue foliage although a green leaf variety exists (which is less hardy to cold). These palms are dioecious and produce pendent, interfoliar inflorescences of small brown flowers which, in female plants, mature to a brown ovoid drupe, each containing a single seed.

Found only in Madagascar, an island well known for its rich diversity of unique taxa, Bismarckia is one genus among a diverse palm flora (some 170 palms of which 165 are solely in Madagascar). They grow in the plains of the central highlands, nearly reaching the western and northern coasts, in savannas of low grass, usually in lateritic soil. As much of this land has been cleared with fire for agricultural use, Bismarckias, along with other fire-resistant trees like Ravenala madagascariensis and Uapaca bojeri, are the most conspicuous components of this arid region.

Bismarck palms are grown throughout the tropics and subtropics under favorable microclimates. They are planted in several areas of Florida in the United States, as well as in a few areas of Southern California, and southern Arizona. It is also grown in many parts of Indonesia and Australia. Bismarck palms will suffer from cold damage but they quickly recover. The green variety is more cold sensitive than is the silver-gray variety. The green variety is damaged at 32 °F (0°), but the silver-gray variety will tolerate 28 °F (−3 °C) and will recover from 23 °F (−6 °C). While Bismarckia tolerate some drought, they thrive in areas with adequate rainfall. Because of their massive crowns, they need plenty of room in a landscape area.

Bismarck palms are easy to grow in the right environment as they are adaptable to a wide range of soils and prefer to have good drainage as the Bismarck does not like to have root rot. The Bismarck palm can adapt to either acidic or alkaline soil and prefers to be watered directly into the root system or sprayed through the palm heart. When planting the Bismarck palm make sure to not to cover up any part of the trunk, as this will lead to problems as the Bismarck palm is susceptible to be eaten by microorganisms that live naturally in soil and other mediums.

Source: Wikipedia

Palms or palm trees can be used for professional agriculture (ecofarming) and diverse forestry in dry and barren landscapes. Many palms are very drought- and heat-resistent. They can protect (by dropping shadow and holding water) other smaller plants around, for example crops or young trees.  Greening Deserts and Leipzig Palms refer to some palms as ‘protectors and wards from the desert’. They are also good to improve the climate and cool down whole cities or urban areas. We therefore recommend palm trees not only for German or European opencast mining areas (open pit deserts), but also for the reform of agriculture and forestry.

Cultivating Endangered Palm Tree Species from Africa

Cultivating endangered palm species from Africa and Madagascar. Today we report about the situtation and how to protect endangered species from extinction, for example by promoting and sharing important information and seeds for cultivation. You can order now different Madagascar palms, cuttings or young plants and seeds by eMail or eBay. We can ship worldwide and in Europe for lower shipping costs.

Dypsis madagascariensis is a species of flowering plant in the Arecaceae family. The palm of Madagascar is threatened by habitat loss. Dypsis madagascariensis is endemic to northern and western Madagascar. Dypsis madagascariensis occurs in moist rainforest and semi-deciduous forest up to 650 m altitude. It can be found in drier forest than most other Dypsis species, even in gullies and ravines in dry bushland. It is cultivated as an ornamental in many tropical countries. Locally it has become naturalized, e.g. in Panama. In Madagascar the wood is commonly used for floorboards of houses. The palm heart is an excellent vegetable and the fruits are edible. The palm is an attractive ornamental. The wood is very hard because of an outer layer of tough fibres. The felling intensity of Dypsis madagascariensis trees is locally high, but usually only mature trees are cut, which gives them some time to reproduce by seed. In many areas, regeneration is fair. However, as is the case with most other Dypsis spp. in Madagascar, the population of Dypsis madagascariensis has much declined as a result of forest destruction, and in national parks illegal cutting is still practised.

Dypsis comprises about 140 species, all endemic to Madagascar except 2 occurring in the Comoros and 1 on Pemba Island. The name Dypsis madagascariensis (Becc.) Beentje & J.Dransf. (1995) may be illegitimate because of the existence of Dypsis madagascariensis (Mart.) G.Nicholson (1885), which is a synonym of Areca madagascariensis Mart. Several other large-sized Dypsis species are cut for their timber used in house building, but most of these are very rare or have a very restricted distribution. The stems of some smaller-sized species are used to make blowpipes, fishtraps and bird cages. The fruits of Dypsis madagascariensis are eaten by lemurs, which disperse the seeds. The palm can grow up to 18 m tall with solitary trunk or 2–4 trunks clustering in clumps, up to 30 cm in diameter; crown shaft green, white waxy.

It is unlikely that sustainable and economically interesting production of timber and palm heart is possible from the remaining wild stands of Dypsis madagascariensis. Protection of the species has become a major concern. Its importance as an ornamental palm will probably still increase. Nursery, conservation and environmental protection projects like Greening Deserts and LE Palms (Leipzig Palms) supporting the recultivation and protections of endangered species, not just palms. We also cultivating different Baobab and mammoth trees.

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Leipzig Palms Cultivating Livistona Fan Palms

Leipzig Palms cultivating Livistona chinensis. With a special palm greenhouse we can cultivate also other famous tropical or subtropical palms in future.

Livistona is a genus of palms (family Arecaceae), native to southern, southeastern and eastern Asia, Australasia, and the Horn of Africa. They are fan palms, the leaves with an armed petiole terminating in a rounded, costapalmate fan of numerous leaflets. Livistona is closely related to the genus Saribus, and for a time Saribus was included in Livistona. Recent studies, however, have advocated separating the two groups.

Chinese fan palms (Livistona chinensis) have larger fan-shaped fronds than their close relatives, the Australian fan palms (Livistona australis). Pronounced are the overhanging leaf tips that have earned the nickname “fountain palm” for these world-famous palm trees, also called Lifingston palms or Livstonien, are among the fan palms: they have round fronds whose edges are cut to about two-thirds of their maximum 1 m in diameter and are thus unfolded in many tips. The strains are quite slender compared to other fan palms, the annual increase is moderate. The Trunk is up to 15 m tall, 20-30 cm in diam. breast high, leaf scars obscure, roughened and with remnant tissue, light coloured, internodes narrow, irregular, brown to grey with age, petiole stubs not persistent, longitudinal fissures prominent. In their Eastern Australian home, these umbrella palms grow in humid rainforests on always moist soil. Accordingly, they appreciate in this country sunny to partly sunny places with regular watering. They tolerate short-term frost.

The Chinese fan palm is not particular about soil. Fertilize twice a year in spring and summer with a good quality slow release fertilizer that contains micro-nutrients. Light: fLikes direct sun and bright situations. Young plants look better when grown in part shade. Moisture: This palm forms a long tap root and can survive extended periods of drought. Provide adequate moisture for more rapid growth. This palm may be hardier than Zone 8. Sheltered some palms survived temperatures as low as 15 degrees. They also seem resistant to the fungus diseases that attacked other “semi-hardy” palms after sustaining cold damage. Propagation: By seed. If kept warm they will germinate in about 2 months time. USDA Hardiness, zone: 9B.

Livistona chinensis; the genus is named for the baron of Livingston and the species name chinensis is Latin for ‘of China’.

There are following species:
Livistona alfredii F.Muell. – Australia: Western Australia
Livistona australis (R.Br.) Mart. – Cabbage-tree Palm – Australia: New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria
Livistona benthamii F.M.Bailey – Australia: Queensland, Northern Territory; New Guinea
Livistona boninensis (Becc.) Nakai – Bonin Islands
Livistona carinensis (Chiov.) J.Dransf. & Uhl – Djibouti, Somalia, Yemen
Livistona chinensis (Jacq.) R.Br. ex Mart. – Chinese Fan Palm – Japan: South and Ryukyu Islands, China: Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan; naturalized in South Africa, Java, New Caledonia, Hawaii, Micronesia, Florida, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and various island in the Indian Ocean
Livistona concinna Dowe & Barfod – Australia: Queensland
Livistona decora (W.Bull) Dowe – Australia: Queensland
Livistona drudei F.Muell. ex Drude – Australia: Queensland
Livistona eastonii C.A.Gardner – Australia: Western Australia
Livistona endauensis J.Dransf. & K.M.Wong – Peninsular Malaysia
Livistona exigua J.Dransf. – Brunei
Livistona fulva Rodd – Australia: Queensland
Livistona halongensis – Ha Long Bay Islands in Vietnam
Livistona humilis R.Br. – Australia: Northern Territory
Livistona inermis R.Br. – Australia: Northern Territory, Queensland
Livistona jenkinsiana Griff. – Bhutan, India: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam; Myanmar, Thailand, China: Hainan, Yunnan
Livistona lanuginosa Rodd – Australia: Queensland
Livistona lorophylla Becc. – Australia: Northern Territory, Western Australia
Livistona mariae F.Muell. – Central Australian Fan Palm – Australia: Northern Territory
Livistona muelleri F.M.Bailey – Australia: Queensland; New Guinea
Livistona nasmophila Dowe & D.L. Jones – Australia: Western Australia
Livistona nitida Rodd – Carnarvon Fan Palm – Australia: Queensland
Livistona rigida Becc. – Australia: Northern Territory, Queensland
Livistona saribus (Lour.) Merr. ex A. Chev. – Indochina, Malaysia, Borneo, Java, Philippines; naturalized in Polynesia, China: Guangdong, Yunnan
Livistona speciosa Kurz – Kho – Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Bangladesh, southern China
Livistona tahanensis Becc. – Pahang in Malaysia
Livistona victoriae Rodd – Australia: Western Australia, Northern Territory

Source: Palmpedia, Wikipedia

Leipzig Palms Cultivating Exotic and Endangered Tropical Palms

LE Palms (Leipzig Palms) cultivating also exotic and tropical palms, especially rare and endangered species. Together with Greening Deserts we want to cultivate also palms of the Red List which are in danger of extinction. For this work we need greenhouses and any support. That’s why we want to build a special greenhouse in the upcoming greening and research camp in the surface mining landscape nearby Leipzig in Saxony. If all runs good and we get finally financial support for this and other important conservation work we maybe can start on site with first preperations still this year.

We found many good and unused places around the lakes (Lakeland Neuseenland). At Cospudener, Markkleeberger and Zwenkauer lake is enough place for a first camp. We informed all responsibles many times and asked for free places, but got no concrete offers. Our demands or requests are still running and we hope to get finally concrete offers for possible places at the lakes. We need a place nearby the camp not just because of the palm cultivation, but also because of water research and the research on better irrigation methods and how to improve the waters or water quality – also for the important research of water plants. Everything is described and explained extensively on the Greening Deserts projects pages.

We already cultivating some rare palms, they growing very good here in Germany. Spring, summer and autumn are hot enough. Today we want to present one rare palm species which is well know because of their hearts of palm. The palm is a perfect houseplant and can be grown indoors.

Euterpe edulis, also Jussarapalme or Juçarapalme, is a palm species native in South America, which strong by the extraction of the palm hearts was decimated.

The species forms single strains, rarely is it multi-stemmed and then with few strains. The trunks are upright, 5 to 12 m high at one Diameter of 10 to 15 cm. The trunk surface is usually gray of lichen, at the base is a reddish-brown cone of adventitious roots. These have a diameter of 1 to 2 cm. The crown consists of 8 to 15 pinnate leaves. The leaf sheath is 0.8 to 1.4 m long, olive to dark green, sometimes with a reddish or orange tone. The surface is bare or covered with reddish-brown scales. The petiole is 13 to 54 cm long. The rhachis is 1.5 up to 3 m long. On each side sit 38 to 62 (rarely 70) leaflets. They are overhanging or hanging, almost opposite, regular arranged and provided with a clear midrib. The lowest Fieder is 29 to 50 cm long, the middle 49 to 80 cm and the Fieder the top 15 to 35 cm…

Euterpe edulis occurs on the Atlantic coast of Brazil and neighboring regions: Alagoas, Bahia, Federal District, Espírito Santo, Goias, Minas Gerais, Paraiba, Parana, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo and Sergipe. The area still includes the northeast of Argentina (Misiones) and the southeast of Paraguay (Department of Alto Paraná). The species grows in Rainforests on rather steep slopes, rarely on flooded sites. It occurs up to heights of 1000 m. On slopes and ridges can they form dense stands, especially over quartzite and on sandy soils. It also colonizes disturbed forest locations.

Euterpe edulis was for many years the most important supplier of palm hearts. In 1965, Paraguay exported 3205 tons of palm hearts, causing destruction of millions of palm trees. Between 1968 and 1970, Brazil exported an average of 2650 tons of palm hearts. The palm hearts were all derived from wild growing stocks. The stocks of Euterpe edulis therefore declined sharply, and use shifted Euterpe oleracea. Rather subordinate is the use of logs as lumber, roofing sheets and fruits for juicing.

Source: Wikipedia

Sabal and Palmetto Dwarf Palms

We cultivate also another dwarf palms like Sabal minor, because some palmetto palms are very resistent to heat and coldness. Hardy and robust palms are a speciality of LE Palms (Leipzig Palms).

Sabal minor, commonly known as the dwarf palmetto, is a small species of palm. It is native to the deep southeastern and south-central United States and northeastern Mexico. It is naturally found in a diversity of habitats, including maritime forests, swamps, floodplains, and occasionally on drier sites. It is often found growing in calcareous marl soil. Sabal minor is one of the most frost and cold tolerant among North American palms.

This palm’s native range spans on the Atlantic Coast from central Florida north to Monkey Island, North Carolina. On the Gulf Coast, it spans from central Florida to central Texas, Arkansas, north to southern Kansas, then south in the State of Nuevo León in Mexico.

The dwarf palmetto grows up to 1 m (rarely 3 m) in height, with a trunk up to 30 cm diameter. It is a fan palm (Arecaceae tribe Corypheae), with the leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. Each leaf is 1.5–2 m long, with 40 leaflets up to 80 cm long, conjoined over half of this length. The flowers are yellowish-white, 5 mm across, produced in large compound panicles up to 2 m long, extending out beyond the leaves. The fruit is a black drupe 1–1.3 cm long containing a single seed.

Sabal minor is one of the most cold hardy palms, second only to the needle palm, Rhapidophyllum hystrix. It is leaf hardy to near 0 F/-18 C, and has been known to survive brief periods of -5 F temperatures. It is generally cultivated in subtropical and warm temperate climates, however it needs hot and humid summers (tropical summer conditions) to grow well.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabal_minor

Cultivation of Diverse Palm Tree Species in Leipzig

Today we want to inform about the first palm species we started to cultivate last years in Leipzig, Saxonia, Germany. All articles and contents on the new website will be translated into German language and you can use the translators on Facebook and Google. We will offer one and two year palms in our upcoming shop and later in the palm store, lounge and café in Leipzig city.

Washingtonia filifera (Lindl. ex André) H.Wendl. California Washingtonia, Northern Washingtonia, California fan palm, or Desert fan palm. Tree to 23 m tall; leaves large, with petiole up to 2 m long, and leaflets up to 2 m long. Inflorescence to 5 m long; flowers white; fruit oval. Southwestern USA, just into extreme northwest Mexico. Palms are often found at the base of mountains, hills and form around desert oasis in the southwest. They are used in landscaping, particularly in southern counties of California.

Washingtonia robusta H.Wendl. Mexican Washingtonia or Southern Washingtonia. Tree to 25 m tall; leaves smaller, with petiole up to 1 m long, and leaflets up to 1 m long. Inflorescence to 3 m long; flowers pale orange-pink; fruit spherical. Northwest Mexico. (Teresa Ribeiro et al.).
The fruit is edible, and was used by Native American people as a minor food source. They are also eaten by birds, which disperse the seeds in their droppings after digesting the fruit pulp. Washingtonia species are also used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including Paysandisia archon.

Both species are cultivated as ornamental trees, widely planted in California in particular, but also in Florida, extreme southwest Utah, Arizona, southern New Mexico, Texas, the Carolinas and the Mediterranean region in southern Europe and north Africa, parts of Australia, and the leeward sides of the Hawaiian Islands. W. filifera is modestly hardy in drier climate and able to survive brief temperatures in the vicinity of -15 °C (10 °F), provided the air and soil are not too wet, and the afternoon temperatures are not too cold. Intolerance of wet, prolonged cold is the main reason the filifera species cannot grow properly in temperate marine climates. W. robusta is less sensitive to moisture than filifera, but far more easily damaged by cold.

The genus is named after George Washington.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washingtonia

Greening Deserts Palm and Tree Nursery from Leipzig

Today is a very special day. Together with Greening Deserts we are proud to announce the first palm nursery and tree nursery, for important and rare endangered plants (Red List), in Leipzig. Of course we will plant and research also other crops.

LE PALMS (Leipzig Palms), the official palm platform, portal, forum and group for palms was founded last year and starts now officially. The page and shop are ready and in development. We want to open the first palm cafe, lounge and palm shop in Leipzig, Saxony. Since years we have the idea to launch a palm garden and palm store – botanic gardens and parks are a speciality of Greening Deserts. Stay tuned for more news and updates. Visit the official pages for more information. http://www.lepalms.org