I just notice my palm tree trunk have something growing out of it. It gives me goose bump. It seem like my palm tree having some kind of disease. Does anything know any thing about this and how to to save it? Thank you in advance.
What sort of palm is it? The first pic doesn't look familiar to me, but the second looks like Sabal palmetto, or our ubiquitous cabbage palm. First pic is not clear enough about the golden bumps, but the fibrousy clump on the mid to upper right of the right most pic is palm roots. They often do that when there's been leaf litter or mulch or maybe even shrubs right up against them. The lower left in that last pic is lichen, not unusual at all. The narrowness at the base of both pics is due to some inconsequential damage. Weed whacking can often give that look, as can animal damage by scratching or nesting or rubbing an inordinate amount. Now to the appearance in the first pic. I'm still going with root masses. They won't be viable, or at least not up on the trunk without something to grow into, but the color could be because they are newish masses likely from something making the palm think it had a medium to grow into: a lawn chair, a sign, a ribbon around the trunk, a mass of vines growing up it. The sod has me thinking it wasn't surrounded by leaf mulch at that height recently. I think in Mobile, you would have mostly Sabal palmetto and maybe Serenoa repens or what you may call palmetto, the prostrate palm common in USDA Zone 8 and 9. That is, your palm probably looks like every other palm in the neighborhood in terms of the green growth. Palms are not really trees. They don't have the structure we know for trees, the bark covering the cambium and the growth rings and heartwood. External damage to the trunk would have to be pretty severe to really hurt a palm. Some of mine were burnt all the way up 40 years ago, and are still charred black in spots that haven't weathered away, but they thrive. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the input. I do not know what kind of palm tree, I make another picture so that you can see it clearly. It does look like the cabbage palm as you mentioned. I didn't put anything around the tree. It stand alone in that corner for 8 years. About the root mass, should I do anything to it? should I cut it off? If not, can I paint over it? Thank you
Okay, that's not Sabal palmetto. Someone planted nursery palms in your yard many years ago. What type, I wouldn't venture a guess, but palm people may know just from this pic. You could cut some of the mass off, but it's not necessary. When you say paint, are you wanting the white paint for some insect control? Or is it just cosmetic repair? Either way, you could paint over these trunks and it would not hurt a bit. I'd just confine it to the lower trunk.
