Two Hobbies Collide-palm collectors and tikis

Those that know me, know of my interest in palms. The International Palm Society has a board like this but about palms. This thread was posted this morning, so I plugged all you carvers, T.C. and The Book Of Tiki. Any carvers out there, feel free to post some pics on the IPS thread below. It may bring you a lot of business. Feel free to give me tikis as commission if this works out!
http://www.palms.org/palmtalk/index.cgi?read=44833
Scroll down for my response.

[ Edited by: laney on 2003-01-07 11:47 ]

Laney,

I have a palm that I've been told is either a bottle palm or a pony tail palm (?). It's now about 6' tall and the base is big and round say 1.5' Is there a definative way for me to determine which it is.

(oddly enough, I got the palm from a Philipino whose name really was Bong)

Here's a galery of palms. Listed by botanical names, common names when known. It may be overwhelming but the bottle palm is pictured there. I don't know of a ponytail palm (fishtail, foxtail, yes, and two of my faves) common names differ. Good luck
http://www.plantapalm.com/vpe/photos/vpe_photos.htm

If the plant you have has long, thin, strap-like leaves (and often, branches), it's the 'ponytail palm' which is neither a ponytail nor a palm. It's in the agave family. The scientific name of the ponytail palm is Beaucarnea recurvata.

Bottle palms are a totally different story. They really are palms, and there are several different species of palm that develop a swollen trunk; either at the base, or sometimes well up the trunk (these are also known as "belly palms" for obvious reasons).

[email protected]
http://www.tikigardens.com

On 2003-01-07 12:18, Tiki_Bong wrote:
Laney,

I have a palm that I've been told is either a bottle palm or a pony tail palm (?). It's now about 6' tall and the base is big and round say 1.5' Is there a definative way for me to determine which it is.

(oddly enough, I got the palm from a Philipino whose name really was Bong)

Hey Traderfranks,
I always thought ponytails were in the liliacae (sp?) family. Also, did you know Fairchild had one (at least pre-Andrew) that was so gigantic, as I remember twenty feet or so with a couple dozen foot thick stalks, they let you climb on it?