r99Bl

Pircipes, 42(l), 1998, pp. 13-14, 54

I first noticed this unusual hybrid about fouryears ago when I went to visit Pauleen Sullivan inVentura, Califomia. It looked a little like a Queenpalm, but it was quite different. It was more plu-mose and the fronds were more recurving. Pauleeninformed me that the palm in question was a crossbetween Butia capitata and Syagrus romaraffi-ona (Queen palm). The next winter I was trulyamazed at how this palm grew steadily and rapidlythrough the winter. By the end of the winter it hadbegun forming a trunk and its fronds were evenmore plumose than before. I commented on thepalm to Pauleen who responded that it was decid-edly a 'ofast grower."

That same year at the \992 I.P.S. Biennial inFlorida, I spotted a similar hybrid on the groundsof the Fairchild Tropical Garden. It was gorgeous,and sure enough, the name placard revealed thatit was a Butia X Syagrus. Back in Ventura,another year went by and of all Pauleen's manypalms, the hybrid was by far her fastest gtower,and it was also very striking and very lovely. Eachyear, Pauleen's hybrid added about two feet oftrunk and it currently has about six feet of trunkwith an imposing array of fronds.

Then in June of this year (1996) I visited Boband Marita Bobick in Orlando, Florida and onceagain I was exposed to a Butia X. Syagrus hybrid.It appeared similar to Pauleen's hybrid and Iasked its origin. Bob Bobick informed me that hehad obtained it from Dr. Merrill'Wilcox, a profes-sor at the University of Florida in Gainesville, andthat to his knowledge, Dr. Wilcox was the onlyperson who could intentionally hybridize these twopalms successfully.

Back in Califomia, Pauleen informed me that

Editors' Note: The hybrid described in this article was for-mally named by P. Vorster in Taxon 39: 662-63 (I99o).Interestingly the name he chose, XButyagrus nabonnandii(Prochowsky) Vorster, nicely commemorates Nabonnand whofirst made the cross. Larry Noblick has drawn our attention tothe fact that in 1940lRodrigrezia 4(13):277lMax Burret men-tioned the hybrid as occurring in the Rio de Janeiro BotanicalGarden. Larry also infoms us that the hybrid may occur spon-taneously in Uruguay.

WILCOX: BUTIA X SYAGRUS

Bv Dn. MnRRrrr Wncox AS roLD To DoN Torrarsox

Hybridization-Butia x Syagrus

she also had obtained her hybrid from Dr. Wilcox.Recalling that I had sat beside Dr. Wilcox duringa rather adventurous jeep ride to the top of Mt.Avila at the 1994 I.P.S. Biennial in Venezuela, Ithought I would give him a call and see if he mightshare some of his hybridizing experience with theInternational PaIm Society. Dr. Wilcox was oblig-ing, so what follows is our conversation.

D.T.: How did you become interested inpalms?

M.W.: It occurred after I began teaching at theUniversity of Florida. I was 33 years old at thetime. I was from the northem part of the UnitedStates, so Gainesville was my first exposure topalms. After a while I began to notice a distinctionbetween palms. Some were pinnate, and somewere palmate. I then began to concentrate on thisdistinction, and shortly thereafter I commented tomy roommate about this difference. He not onlywas aware of it, but he told me also of a hybridbetween two of the pinnate palms which occurredinfrequently, and resulted in a very rare and beau-tiful palm.

D.T.: Did this excite your interest?

M.W.: It certainly did, particularly when I discqv-ered that the two parents required for this hybridwere both growing at my apartment complex.

D.T.: How did you become involved in thehybridization process?

M.W.: It was sort of an indirect occurrence. I hada minor in botany, but I had never had a taxonomycourse. I was curious enough, though, that I exam-ined the inflorescence of a Butia. Upon observingthe Butia flower, I discovered that the inflores-cence looked like a corn tassel with a femaleflower added. As a young man, I had pollinatedcom at Beltsville, Maryland, so I went to thelibrary to obtain literature on palm pollination.The material that I found was about coconut andAfrican oil palms, but figuring they were similarto Butia and Syagrus, I studied the process.

I4 P R I N C I P E S lVoL. 42

D.T.: Can you share your poll inationexperience with us?

M.W.: Certainly, although it's all in the researchmaterial about coconuts and African oil palms. Imerely extended the effort to hybridizationbetween Butia and queen palms. I start by col-lecting a queen palm inflorescence. I then put theinflorescence in a paper bag and placed it in anoven at 40o centigrade (approximately I04" F.) forabout 20 hours.

D.T.: What does the oven process do?

M.W.: The heat causes the pollen to drop off freelyinto the bag.

D.T.: Won't the bag catch fire?

M.W.: Not at 40o. I should mention that I use alaboratory oven, but I have on occasion used astandard kitchen oven.

D.T.: Why a paper bag?

M.W.: Because plastic bags create humidity,which kills pollen. After 20 hours, you remove andpound on the bag to loosen the pollen. I like todrop the pollen onto tin foil. Next I use a rollingpin to crush the inflorescence and the male flowerto obtain the maximum amount of pollen. I removethe male flowers, and then I sift the pollen througha standard strainer o{ approximately 40 mesh. Thisprovides pure pollen. Then I store the pollen in arefrigerator, and save it until the female Butiaflowers are receptive. When the female flowers areready, I remove the male Butia flowers by hand orwith a brush, and cover the remaining female flow-ers on the inflorescence with a plastic bagfor 24hours before the female flowers become receptive.The humidity build up from placing a plastic bagover the Butia inflorescence kills any Butia pollenthat may have remained or perhaps preventsinsects from pollinating the Butia or both. Then Iremove the plastic bag and spread the Syagruspollen on the Butia inflorescence with a l0 mil-liliter hypodermic syringe.

D.T.: A hypodermic syringe?

M.W.: Don't be intimidated by the hypodermicsyr-inge. I use it as a small duster. You could prob-ably just as easily use a salt or pepper shaker.Any seeds that develop should be the offspring ofa male Syagrus and a female Butia. I wait untilthe seeds are ripe, pick them, and then germinatethem. The result should be a Butia X Syagrusseedling.

D.T.: What happens if you reverse theparents-say a female syagrus and amale Butia?

M.W.: I have rarely performed the hybridizationprocess that way because the queen palms are sotall that much of the procedure would have to beperformed on a tall ladder, and since it is alreadyquite labor intensive the way I do it, I simplyhaven't been able to find the time to complete tHecross in reverse. Although I have producedreversed seedlings, they have not survived. How-ever, I have seen unintentional hybrids with afemale Syagrus and a male Butia cross and theydo tend to look different. They seem to be tallerand lacier. In terms of cold hardiness and growthrate, I have not had the opportunity to make anydistinctions.

D.T.: What have been your observationsas to cold hardiness with the hybrids thatyou have developed?

M.W.: It's been my observation that the hybridsare usually more cold hardy than the parentqueens, but less cold hardy than the parenr Butia.As between the two parentso the hybrid appearscloser to the queen than the Butia in col.d sensi-tivity.

D.T.: What about crosses between theJubaea chilensis and Butia capihtn

M..W.: I've performed several of those as well. Forone thing, the Jubaea will not grow for us here inFlorida, but the cross will. I have several of theJubaea X Butia hybrids growing on my property.

D.T.: ls it because of the cold that theJubaea will not grow in Florida?

M.W.: No, the lubaea is definitely more coldhardy than rhe Butia. Maybe it's because of ourhumidity or high temperatures. Jubaea demandsan atmosphere more arid than that of Gainesville.

D.T.: What's the physical dist inctionbetween the Jubaea x Butra and theJubaea?

M.W.: The two are similar. The cross appe€rs asthough it may some day be as large as a regularJubaca, so in that rcspect it's more like the Jubacaparent than the Bu.tin parent. There's a Juboca XBu,tia at Fairchild Tropical Garden. You can't missit. It's much more glaucous than the regular Jubana.

(Continued on p. 54)

54 P R I N C I P E S IYor.42

(Continued' frorn p. 14)

D.T.: Gan the Jubaea x Butia produce via-ble seed?

M.W.: My oldest Jubaea X Butia is only about 20years old, but I believe it will produce viable seed.AII natural lubaea X Butia that I've checked pro-duce viable seed.

D.T.: What about the Butia x Syagrus?

M.W.: I don't think so. That's why the expression"mule" has been derived for this cross.

D.T.: Could you cross, say, a coconutwith a Jubaeopsis caffra?

M.W.: I don't think so. Coconuts have only 16chromosomes, while Jubaeopsis cffia have over100. Therefore, it wouldn't seem that those twoeould be capable ofhybridization, except with dif-ficulty.

D.T.: I'm sure that's what most of us sortof figured. Thank you for providing uswith this fascinating information. TheButia x queen hybrids are beginning toshow tremendous potential in new fron-tiers because of their cold hardiness andwe are all hoping that you'll continue tokgep up the work in the area of hybridiza-tion.M.W.: I probably will continue since I sprayed

water during a bad freeze on my queen palm andit managed to survive this past winter, which wasso cold it resulted in the demise of almost all ofthe other queens in Gainesville. Otherwise itwould have been difficult, if not impossible to findqueen pollen locally.

D.T.: How can palm enthusiasts obtainthe relevant literature in the event thatthey want to attempt to duplicate yodrhybridization process?

M.W.: I would be happy to send articles to anyoneinterested in the process, so anyone who is inter-ested can simply obtain my address from the IPSRoster and contact me.

D.T.: Any final advice?

M.W.: Just one thing. I have heard of thesehybrids referred to as mules. I recall as a young-ster my many unpleasant encounters with thatcantankerous animal and I hate to see such abeautiful palm associated with it in any way.Although I realize it's none of my business whatpeople call it, I would like to encourage the asso-ciation of the Butia X Syagrus cross with thename Nabonnand after Paul Nabonnand, the bot-anist who first successfully hybridized these plantsover 100 years before I did. Knowing first handthe degree of difficulty required, I have a greatdeal of respect and admiration for him.

PALMS AND PEOPLE

During the annual meeting of the Society for Economic Botany (SEB), which will be held at the

University of Aarhus, Denmark, 13-17 July 1998, a special session will feature the theme "Palms

and People."The meeting is open to others than members of the SEB. Further information can be found on

the SEB website:

http ://wuw. nyb g. or g/b s ci./s eb/S E B.html

Registration for the meeting can be sent to:

John Rashford, SEB TreasurerDept. of Sociology and AnthropologyCollege of Charleston, Charleston, SC 29424 USAemail Rashfordj @cofc.edu

Fees are: nonmembers of SEB I05 USD, banquet 45 USD, accommodation 35 USD/night.

Abstract: before May 5, 1998, by email to Henrik.Balslev@Biology.aau.dk or by regular mail toHenrik Balslev, SEB-conference, Dept. of Systematic Botany, University of Aarhus, Nordlandsvej68. 8240-Riiskov. Denmark.