who is growing Asplundia?

[doranakandawatta]

Seen in Lyon botanic garden… I dream I can get them in Doranakanda gardens:

 

 

[Pando]

I have one growing here, Asplundia "Jungle Drum", sold as a houseplant in a big box store. Seems to do ok so far, but we'll see if it survives the colder months here.

 

 

[doranakandawatta]

sold as a houseplant in a big box store...

Lucky you finding such species in such stores !
We can't.

 

[John Case]

lost mine years ago, outdoors, in Brentwood 9b.....probably too much sun and not enough water......

[Josh-O]

perdy looking plants though!!!

saw them at the big box stores this summer for cheap.

[Donald Sanders]

nomenclature of cyclanthus varies like it did with palms long ago.    I am not an expert but I have been studying cyclanthus for years and to my knowledge the photos previously posted as asplundia are in fact cyclanthus bipartitus.    Asplundia from what I know is the climbing cyclanthus.   Years ago a famous botanist Harling, cataloged over 90 different climbing, vine like, palm leafed cyclanthus as asplundia.    Check wiki just to double check my facts.    I have personally observed many palm like leafed climbing cyclanthus in Costa Rica.

Asplundia, and other cyclanthus plants are seldom studied or cultivated.    I have only one climbing cyclanthus out of so many because they are not collected or cultivated except by a few like me.

All cyclanthus. either terrestrial or climbing are beautiful palm like new world tropical plants that deserve more horticultural attention.

With so many in the new world tropics, only few are found or grown here on the Big Island of Hawaii.

I always enjoy sharing info on asplundia, cyclanthus,,

Aloha,   Don

[doranakandawatta]

Ayubowan Don,

Thanks for replying and giving us so many good informations.

Did you sow or propagate Cyclanthaceae ? is it difficult ?

Regards, 

Philippe

[XYZ]

Don:

While I agree that cyclanth identification can be very tricky, the plants above are indeed asplundias and not Cyclanthus bipartitus. Simple key character is that Cyclanthus leaves are not plicate. There is an online key to the family set up by Kew under their Neotropikey program, but a great visual key to almost all of the genera is contained in Alwyn Gentry's "A Field Guide to the Families and Genera of Woody Plants of Northwest South America". There are actually a number of Asplundia spp. that are strictly terrestrial, but most are indeed hemiepiphytes. Some of the latter may persist with terrestrial growth for quite some time so they are confusing in youth, particularly since several species may occur in sympatry.

Gunner Harling's 1958 monograph is a thing of beauty and still of real value to researchers, but good copies are somewhat expensive and it is a highly technical publication.

Given their apparent rarity in collections, there are more cyclanth species in cultivation than one might think. There are fair to quite good collections at a couple US botanical gardens, and there is a major effort currently underway to bring more attention to these plants and to consolidate all the species in cultivation at one garden for subsequent propagation. At least 10 of the currently-recognized dozen genera are in cultivation, and one additional monotypic genus (Dianthoveus) was in certainly in cultivation in the US during the 90s but may have been lost for now.

As more plants become available amongst specialized collectors on the US mainland, it is now apparent that several of the most showy species are already in cultivation here, although admittedly they are very rare. There are a couple of quite showy species that apparently are still not being grown outside of their range countries. I have five genera in my collection now (although I do not grow Carludovica nor Cyclanthus) and expect to add at least two more genera next spring.

Philippe:

They may be propagated vegetatively or by seed. Generally speaking, if well-cleaned seed is kept damp and is freshly collected it will germinate rapidly; otherwise it can take more than a year (or never) to germinate.

Cheers,

J

 

[aussiearoids]

Cairns Botanic Garden a few days ago

It has gthe strangest seed pod

[doranakandawatta]

1 hour ago, aussiearoids said:

Cairns Botanic Garden a few days ago

It has gthe strangest seed pod

it seems to be a very beautiful Cyclanthus bipartitus. Thanks.

[Pando]

Well, here's the answer whether it will grow in SoCal.

This thing just melted in our Cal-Nino.

 

[Josh-O]

3 hours ago, Pando said:

Well, here's the answer whether it will grow in SoCal.

This thing just melted in our Cal-Nino.

 

I thought you were in zone 11B?

[Pando]

Just now, Josh-O said:

I thought you were in zone 11B?

My coconut now tells me otherwise

[Josh-O]

3 minutes ago, Pando said:

My coconut now tells me otherwise

so far my lip sticks are surviving the cali-nino. I had to edit the cocos to make room..

[Pando]

1 hour ago, Josh-O said:

so far my lip sticks are surviving the cali-nino. I had to edit the cocos to make room..

I forgot my lodoicea outside again this winter, and it's doing fine!

[doranakandawatta]

15 hours ago, Pando said:

I forgot my lodoicea outside again this winter, and it's doing fine!

[Josh-O]

23 hours ago, Pando said:

I forgot my lodoicea outside again this winter, and it's doing fine!

what no picture 

[EdInSanDiego]

Holy shit, you're growing lipstick palms in California? I thought that was impossible! I thought they barely even survived south Florida. How?? Where did you get them from?

Edited January 26, 2016 by EdInSanDiego