Acanthophoenix rubra

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Geoff
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Acanthophoenix rubra

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Post by Geoff »

Hawaii:
Acanthophoenix  rubra 1.jpg
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Acanthophoenix rubras.jpg
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Acanthophoenix rubra  crown.jpg
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Southern California:
Acanthophoenix rubra Ha.jpg
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Acanthophoenix rubra leaves.jpg
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Acanthophoenix rubra trunk.jpg
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One of at least three species of Acanthophoenix, most notable due to their first place in the alphabetic list of palms, all found on a few island in the Indian Ocean. Fortunately this is a pretty commonly grown palm in several of the Hawaiian botanical gardens so I have had the luck of being able to see and photograph some. It is not a great palm for southern California unless you live in the right microclimate (eg. protected San Diego County), though Acanthophoenix crinita, the less colorful cousin, is actually a very good palm for many areas of southern California. This is one of many spiny palms (many which also start with 'A')- a solitary trunked species with a nice, long, smooth (though often spiny) crownshaft of rust coloration. Attractive 'typically' tropical looking palm with arching leaves and narrow, evenly and closely spaced long leaflets and a fairly prominently ringed trunk. It's a smaller palm with trunks only about 4"-6" in diameter, and growing up to 60' (never seen one even 1/4 that tall, though) on the islands of Mauritius and Renunion. Young plants are particularly colorful showing a lot of red and are very spiny. Mature plants are far less spiny.
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