I cannot for the life life of me remember the name of this houseplant, but I have two of them, the other one not even half as big as this one. I've had the one above for about 5 years now, and it's grown from an itty bitty thing barely 4 inches above the pot, to this lovely, full plant. Walking past it today, and I noticed a...a...thing!...growing out of it. A couple things actually. I've never seen this stuff before, in all the years I've had the plant. What IS that stuff??? There's what looks like some kind of seed stuff...a small growth emerging from the stalk of the plant with these little seed pod looking things on it. And then this spindly looking thing, completely different from the rest of the fronds, and sort of knobby. I'm wondering if it had seeds on it too, and they fell off leaving it just knobby looking. But I feel certain that I would have noticed! Any ideas folks? This has me completely stumped!
It's Chamaedorea elegans (parlor palm) or C. cataractarum (cat palm,) blooming! This is the normal time of year for them to bloom. They are dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female. In the 2nd pic you put, those look like male blooms. The 3rd pic is a stalk of less developed male blooms if it is on the same tree. If it is on a different individual, it's too soon for my eyes to know whether the last pic shows a male or female bloom. For pollination to occur, one must have both male and female blooming at the same time. If seeds form, it will be obvious, the stalk will persist and the seeds will swell to about the size of a large pea and turn black. (Takes many months.) I have put quite a few pics of C. elegans here, including the seeds it makes: http://www.gardenstew.com/plantstew/506713
All I knew was that it was a palm, haven't been able to really successfully been able to grow one but would love to!
The pics I posted where all of the same plant, so those seed pods, AND that weird stalky thing are both from the same plant. Thanks so much for the pics, purple. I love the plant which is why I bought a second one. No clue if it's male or female though so I don't know that there will be a love affair between them.
Ronni, could you have more than one palm tree in that pot? Squeezed together, like? I suppose if you get those big black seeds eventually, the answer will be 'yes'! Cool plant by the way.
Really? You think? Hmm...that never even occurred to me. Meaning that if there is more than one, there's a chance that they will be male and female, and that those seeds will form? Well I'll be back over at Ed's tomorrow and I'll take a look. Can I take the seeds and plant them and make new plants? Or send 'em to any of you who want them? Also another question...that plant is getting way too big for the pot it's in. I was going to replant it to a bigger pot in a couple months, as soon as it's a bit warmer....need to do it outside because it will get messy. But given this latest development, should I wait to do that till the seeds do whatever they're going to do?
I think that it is high time for you to get a bigger pot. Larger pots have larger soil volume so they don't have to be watered often.
Yes, if it's drying too quickly for your schedule, repotting whenever it's a nice, warm day outside should be fine. Try to do in the shade, sunburn can happen quickly when plants aren't used to being outside.
