Trachycarpus fortunei (Naini Tal)
The following thread was started by Eric (Victoria) on February 18, 2009 at 9:57 pm PST
www.trebrown.com also sells takil and naini-tal. If you read about the species here, you will find info about where they are sourced.
I have no idea about differing takil & naini-tal. (Took Spanner & Gibbons a long while too.) But it seems to me, Naini Tal seems to grow with a slant at the base the first few years.
The above followup was added by Erlend on February 19, 2009 at 0:16 am PST.
the takil is a totaly differant palm than the 'naini tal'! not only is takil much slower growing (at least when young) the colour of the flowers is orange and not yellow like in fortunei/naini tal....
takil seeds are only available for us palm enhousiast since late 2007! Martin and Tobias brought back some seeds from the 2005 expedition and did grow some seedlings out of them but those were never available for comercial growers....
for some pictures of the takil visit these links...
http://www.europalms.be/pictures/trachycarpus_takil/album/index.html
http://www.gardenpalms.com/EN/articles/top%20trachycarpus.aspx
after finding a few scientific articles i think the takil is actualy rediscovered in the wild by some Indian botanist in 2003 when they mapped the flora and fauna of India but it took another 2 years before Martin and Tobias visited the site i gues.
in one of the articles they also say that in a botincal garden there are growing many takils whic raises the question why it took so long to be available to us westerners and also what's al the fus about the (re)discovery
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/jun252004/1598.pdf
http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/mar102004/633.pdf
The above followup was added by Kristof p on February 20, 2009 at 2:59 pm PST.
So the 2 gallon "Takil" I recently bought isn't Takil but really Trachycarpus sp. 'Naini Tal'? Great. What will 'Naini Tal' grow up to be like?
The above followup was added by Travis on February 20, 2009 at 6:52 pm PST.
Maybe a tad bigger. In my experience a tad less hardy. It may have twisted hastulas when young, but will probably largely lose this trait when older.
The above followup was added by Alex, Portland-Hillsboro, Oregon (z8b) on February 20, 2009 at 10:32 pm PST.
the twisted hastulas is not a thread for any fortunei i think...i have seen twisted hastulas on "regular" fortunei. when you plant them at a small size fortunei can sometimes grow very quickly after a while and most of such fast growing fortuneis have the twisted hastula. the speers grow so fast that they are under great pressure when still inside the 'heart' and this is likely to cause the twisted hastulas...
The above followup was added by Kristof p on February 21, 2009 at 0:07 am PST.
I wonder...
Both of my Naini Tals (1.5 m / 5 ft) tall have twisted hastulas on all their fronds. They had that even when I bought them.
The three adult (4 m / 12 ft) Naini Tals I have seen here in Portland have no twisted hastulas.
One of my fortuneis has twisted hastulas on a few fronds, but not all of them.
Just a coincidence?
As for hardiness: shortlived 18F / -8C freeze their first year in the ground did substantial damage to the newest three fronds, but the palms did not pull spears.
Their 5 gallon siblings left in the pots outside in the nursery were all killed in the same freeze.
The above followup was added by Alex, Portland-Hillsboro, Oregon (z8b) on February 21, 2009 at 9:57 am PST.
Hi Alex,
you said it yourselve. some have it and others dont and also some fortunei have the twisted hastulas....
if this was a thread for the naini tal than al of them would have the twisted hastula ;-).
The above followup was added by Kristof p on February 22, 2009 at 4:08 am PST.
So I'll just plant the 2 gallon "takil" I just bought and when people are over and ask which species it is I will just say it is an expensive fortunei.
I think I'll wait to buy any more new Trachy's besides fortunei until all the dust settles from these "new" discoveries. I just hope the little princeps babies I just bought grow up to really be princeps.
The above followup was added by Travis on February 22, 2009 at 4:30 pm PST.